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Title: The Vitality of Mormonism--Brief Essays
       Brief Essays on Distinctive Doctrines of the Church of
       Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Author: James E. Talmage

Release Date: October 23, 2014 [EBook #47182]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VITALITY OF MORMONISM--BRIEF ESSAYS ***




Produced by the Mormon Texts Project (MormonTextsProject.org)







THE VITALITY OF
MORMONISM


BRIEF ESSAYS ON DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS


By

JAMES E. TALMAGE

One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church


BOSTON

RICHARD G. BADGER

THE GORHAM PRESS



PREFACE

The message of "Mormonism" is of summoning interest in the world
today. People of serious mind are not satisfied with the unsupported
generalization that it is naught but the outgrowth of delusion and
error.

Fungi of fallacy, particularly in the field of modern religious
systems, are of no such sturdy growth and wholesome fruitage as
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has progressively
manifested.

"Mormonism," mis-named though it be, stands for the principles of
eternal truth as enunciated by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by His duly
commissioned Apostles and Prophets. The basis of "Mormonism" is fairly
summarized in the following outline of facts and premises:

1. The eternal existence of a living personal God; and the preexistence
and eternal duration of mankind as His literal offspring.

2. The placing of man upon the earth as an embodied spirit to undergo
the experiences of an intermediate probation.

3. The transgression and fall of the first parents of the race, by
which man became mortal, or in other words was doomed to suffer a
separation of spirit and body through death.

4. The absolute need of a Redeemer, empowered to overcome death and
thereby provide for a reunion of the spirits and bodies of mankind
through a material resurrection from death to immortality.

5. The providing of a definite plan of salvation, by obedience to which
man may obtain remission of his sins, and be enabled to advance by
effort and righteous achievement throughout eternity.

6. The establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ in the "meridian of
time," by the personal ministry and atoning death of the foreordained
Redeemer and Savior of mankind, and the proclamation of His saving
Gospel through the ministry of the Holy Priesthood during the apostolic
period and for a season thereafter.

7. The general "falling away" from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by which
the world degenerated into a state of apostasy, and the Holy Priesthood
ceased to be operative in the organization of sects and churches
designed and effected by the authority of man.

8. The restoration of the Gospel in the current age, and the
reestablishment of the Church of Jesus Christ by the bestowal of the
Holy Priesthood through Divine revelation.

9. The appointed mission of the restored Church of Jesus Christ to
preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof amongst all
nations, in preparation for the near advent of our Savior Jesus Christ,
who shall reign on earth as Lord and King.

The short essays following have been published at weekly intervals
through two years; they number therefore one hundred and four. Concise
rather than exhaustive treatment has been attempted. No apology is
offered for reiteration of quotations or comment; repetition seemed
preferable to the introduction of cross references.

JAMES E. TALMAGE.

Salt Lake City, Utah,

February 3, 1919.



CONTENTS

1. The Mustard Seed and the Tree--Development, not Growth Alone

2. What the "Mormons" Believe--Their Articles of Faith

3. What's in a Name?--Is "Mormonism" Misunderstood because of Its Unpopular
Title?

4. "Mormonism"--A Distinctive Religious System

5. Direct and Sure--The Church Bold yet Tolerant

6. Wheat and Weeds--Successive Apostasies from the Gospel

7. A New Dispensation--Authority by Restoration not Through Succession

8 Divine Command and Human Agency--The Church a Democracy

9. The Holy Trinity--Unity of the Godhead

10. Original Sin--Are All to Suffer from it Eternally?

11. The Cooperative Plan of Salvation--Christ Alone Cannot Save You

12. The Need of a Redeemer--Man Cannot Exalt Himself

13. Christ's Unique Status--As Redeemer and Savior of the World

14. Philosophy of the Atonement--Its Two-fold Effect

15. How Does Christ Save?--His Plan Combines Justice and Mercy

16. Heaven and Hell--Graded Conditions in the Hereafter

17. In the Realm of the Dead--Paradise--What of the Spirits in Prison?

18. Why Are They Baptized for the Dead?--Elijah the Prophet on the
American Continent

19. Obedience is Heaven's First Law--Conditions of Citizenship in the
Kingdom of God

20. The Devils Believe and Tremble--Faith not Mere Belief

21. The Voice of John the Baptist Again Heard--Repent Ye, for the
Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand!

22. Arise and Wash Away Thy Sins--The Only Way

23. Are Babes to be Damned?--A Horrible Misconception

24. The Watery Grave--And the New Birth

25. The Baptism of Fire--Power of the Spirit

26. In the Name of God, Amen!--Authority of the Holy Priesthood Again
Operative on Earth

27. For Time Only or for Eternity--Human Institutions and Divine
Authority

28. Apostles and Prophets Necessary--The Primitive Church and the
Church of Latter Days

29. When Darkness Covered the Earth--The Long Night of Apostasy

30. The Morning Breaks, the Shadows Flee--Light of the Gospel Again
Shines

31. The Beginning or the End--Ushering in of the Last Dispensation

32. A God of Miracles--Wonders Wrought by Devils

33. Is the Bible Sufficient?--Scriptures of Many Peoples

34. A Messenger--From the Presence of God

35. Scriptures of the American Continent--The Book of Mormon

36. By the Mouth of Witnesses--Shall the Truth be Established

37. Voices of the Dead--A Testimony from the Dust

38. A New Witness of the Christ--An Independent Scripture

39. When Christ Stood on American Soil--His Church Established Among
the Ancient Americans

40. East and West in One Acclaim--That Jesus is the Christ

41. Sheep of Another Fold--Shepherds and Sheep-herders

42. From God to Man--Divine Communication in the Current Age

43. The Tragedy of Israel--A Nation Without a Country

44. The Gathering of the Tribes--Judah and Israel to Come into Their Own

45. America the Land of Zion--The Place of the New Jerusalem

46. The Coming of the Lord--The Consummation of the Ages

47. The Federation of the World--A Thousand Years of Peace

48. Thy Kingdom Come!--So Pray We Yet

49. Freedom to Worship God--Man's Divine Birthright

50. The Law of the Land--Should We Submit to It?

51. Church and State--Independent but Mutually Helpful

52. Religion of Daily Life--A Practical Test

53. America the Cradle of Liberty--No King to Rule in the Land

54. Democracy of American Origin--The Founding of an Ancient Republic

55. Perpetuity of American Nation--Assured by Prophecy

56. Law of the Tithe--The Lord's Revenue System

57. The United Order--No Longer Mine and Thine, but the Lord's and Ours

58. The Word of Wisdom--Sanctity of the Body

59. Unchastity the Dominant Evil--Infamy of a Double Standard of Virtue

60. Not Good for Man to be Alone--Companionship of the Sexes

61. Till Death Does You Part--Is there no Hope Beyond?

62. They Neither Marry--Nor Give in Marriage

63. Celestial Marriage--Eternal Relationship of the Sexes

64. There Was War in Heaven--Primeval Conflict over Satanic Autocracy

65. We Lived Before We Were Born--Our Primeval Childhood

66. Man is Eternal--Successive Stages of Existence

67. In the Lineage of Deity--Man's Divine Pedigree

68. Unending Advancement--Infinite Possibilities of Man's Estate

69. The Living and the Dead--Both to Hear the Gospel

70. God of the Living--All Live unto Him

71. Beyond the Grave--Repentance Possible even There

72. Opportunity Here and Hereafter--Free Agency and its Results

73. The Spirit World--Paradise and Hades

74. How Long Shall Hell Last?--The Duration of Punishment

75. Salvation and Exaltation--Advancement Worlds Without End

76. Deity as Exalted Humanity--Man is a God in Embryo

77. Be Ye Perfect--Is It Possible

78. The Glory of God is Intelligence--Knowledge is Power in Heaven as
on Earth

79. When Ignorance is Sin--Opportunity Entails Accountability

80. Knowing and Doing--Knowledge May Help to Condemn or Save

81. Will Many or Few be Saved?--Our Place Beyond the Grave

82. The Graves Shall be Opened--And the Dead Shall Live

83. Resurrection of the Dead--When Shall it be?

84. Reaching After the Dead--"Lest We Forget"

85. The House of the Lord--Why do the Latter-day Saints Build Temples?

86. The Second Death--Spiritual Banishment Like unto the First

87. Antiquity of the Gospel--As Old as Adam

88. The Origin of Sacrifice--Coeval with the Race

89. Simplicity of the Gospel--None Need Err Therein

90. The Will or God--Though Opposed, Yet Eventually Supreme

91. God's Foreknowledge--Not a Determining Cause

92. Are Men Created Equal?--Individualism is Eternal

93. Ethics and Religion--A Distinction with a Difference

94. Religion Active and Passive--Effort Essential to Salvation

95. Remember the Sabbath Day--A Law unto Man from the Beginning

96. The Foolishness of God--And the Wisdom of Men

97. Freedom Through Obedience--Release from Autocracy of Sin

98. He Went and Washed--And Came Seeing

99. The Rod of Iron--A Dependable Support

100. Liar and Murderer--From the Beginning

101. On the Devil's Ground--Prisoners to Satan

102. What Doth It Profit a Man?--Worldly Gain--Eternal Loss

103. The Garden of God--And the Weeds of Human Culture

104. The Last Dispensation--Today is the Sum of all the Yesterdays



THE VITALITY OF MORMONISM



-- 1 --

THE MUSTARD SEED AND THE TREE

Development, Not Growth Alone

WHY does "Mormonism" persist? The question is perennial, while the fact
implied therein commands increasing interest and concern.

Determined attempts were made to stifle the system at its birth, to
destroy the mustard seed at the planting; and, paradoxically, in
proportion as the actuality of its survival has become generally
evident, the assumed certainty of its imminent decline has been the
more confidently proclaimed. The fall of the spreading tree, whose
branches afford unfailing food and shelter, has been predicted time and
again, but never realized.

On the sixth day of April, 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints was organized as a body corporate at Fayette in the
State of New York, with a membership of six persons. True, at that time
a few times six had associated themselves more or less closely with the
new religious movement; but, as the laws of the State specified six as
the minimum required to form a religious corporation, only that number
took part in the legal procedure. And they, save one, were relatively
obscure.

The name of Joseph Smith had already been heard beyond his home
district. He was at the time a subject of widening notoriety if not
of enviable fame. The Book of Mormon, purporting to be a record of
the aboriginal peoples of the Western Continent, had already been
published. In reference to the title page of this work the appellation
"Mormons" came to be fastened upon members of the Church.

Such a beginning as that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints would seem to afford little ground of either hope or fear as
to future developments. What was there to cause hostile concern over
the voluntary association of six men and a few of their friends in
an organization of openly expressed purpose, and that, the peaceful
promulgation of what they verily believed to be the uplifting religion
of life, the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Whatever may be the answer to the
query, the fact that the Church met opposition, which for a long period
was increasingly severe, is abundantly attested by history. [1]

Today the "Mormon" Church is known, by name at least, throughout the
civilized world, as well as among most of the semi-cultured peoples in
the remoter parts of the earth and on the islands of the sea. The six
have increased to over half a million adherents.

The growth of the organization is apparent to even the poorly informed.
But the Church has not only grown; it has developed. Between growth
and development there is an essential difference; and not a few of
the grave mistakes of men, even in every-day affairs--in business,
in politics, in statesmanship--are traceable to our confusing and
confounding the two. Growth alone is the result of accretion, the
accumulation of material, the amassing of stuff. Development involves
an extension of function, a gradation of efficiency, a passing from
immaturity to maturity, from the seed to the fruiting tree.

Growth produces big things, and not only things of this sort but men.
Between bigness and greatness, however, there is a distinction of kind.
Growth is a measure of bulk, of quantity; it is specified as "so many"
or "so much"; development is a gradation of quality; its terms are "so
good" or "so bad." Our nation boasts a constantly increasing host of
big men; the great men of the country may be more easily counted. And
as with men so with institutions.

Dead things may grow, as witness the tiny salt crystal in its
mother-brine--at first a microscopic cube, then a huge hexahedron
limited only by the size of the container or other external conditions.
Development, however, is the characteristic of life, to which mere
growth is essentially secondary and subordinate.

The vital character of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints has been evident from the first. "Mormonism" lives because it
is healthy, normal and undeformed. In general, a healthy organism
is assured of life, barring destruction from external violence or
deprivation of physical necessities; whereas one that is abnormal and
sickly is doomed to decline. Opposition to the Church, the pitiless
maltreatment to which its people have been subjected, particularly in
the earlier decades of its history, comprising mobbings, drivings,
spoliation, scourgings, and assassination, have operated to strengthen
the Church, body and soul. True, the heat of persecution has scorched
and withered a few of the sickly plants, such as had little depth of
sincerity; but the general effect has been to promote a fuller growth,
and to make richer and more fertile the Garden of the Lord.

The Church has never experienced a distinctive period of reduced
membership. Always the present has been the time of its highest
achievement. In spite of persecution, some of which sprang from
misplaced sincerity and zeal while much was born of ignorance and
fanaticism, the strength of the institution, measured in terms of
loyalty, devotion and unswerving adherence to the principles of the
restored Gospel, has steadily increased.

It is a notable fact that its members are imbued with the testimony of
certitude as to the genuineness of the Gospel they have espoused and
the perpetuity of the Church. This has been a distinguishing feature
from the beginning.

Apostasy from the organization is so rare as to be negligible.
Excommunicants, who are deprived of their membership through failure
to live up to the high standard of morality and duty required by the
revealed law of the Church, while not numerous exceed by many fold
those who voluntarily withdraw and affiliate with other religious
bodies.

"Mormonism" is definite and incisive in its claims. It speaks to the
world in no uncertain tone. Its voice is virile; its activities are
strong. It presents an unbroken front and is unafraid. Its attitude
is not hostile, though strongly aggressive. Its methods are those of
reason and persuasion, coupled with a fearless affirmation of testimony
as to the surpassing importance of its message, which message it labors
to convey to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.

It is not too much to affirm that the leaven of "Mormonism" is
leavening the world and its theology. Every studious reader of recent
commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, and of theological treatises in
general, is aware of a surprising progressiveness in modern views of
things spiritual, amounting in many instances to an abandonment of what
were once regarded as the fundamentals of orthodoxy.

_In the new theology "Mormonism" has pioneered the way_.

In its early days the Church received the word of the Lord avouching
the perpetuity of the organization. While no individual was promised
that he should not fall away, and though the forfeiture of the Holy
Spirit's companionship was specified as the sure and incalculable
loss to all who wilfully persisted in sin, the blessed assurance was
given that the Church of Jesus Christ was established for the last
time, never to be destroyed, nor again driven from the earth through
apostasy. Men may come and men may go, but the Church shall go on
forever.

There has never been revision nor amendment in the fundamental law of
the Church, and the only changes are those natural to development,
expansion and adaptation to new conditions.

The world is full of sects and churches, and there is scarcely one that
has not a counterpart in a revised or reformed or reorganized sect.
_But the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is no sect; it
is an original creation, established upon the earth in this age as a
restoration_. There will never be a reformed or reorganized variant of
this, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The faith of the people is no whit weakened because of their fewness.
This very condition was foretold. Nearly six centuries before the
Savior's birth, a Hebrew prophet on the Western Continent predicted the
establishment of this Church in the last days, and testified of it, as
he had seen in vision, that its members would be found in all parts of
the earth, but that their numbers would be relatively small. See Book
of Mormon, 1 Nephi 14.

"_Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it_." (Matt. 7:14, also Book of Mormon, 3
Nephi 14:14.)

The doors of the Church are open to all, rich and poor, learned and
unlearned; and the pleading invitation to enter and become partakers
of the blessings that pertain both to mortality and to the eternities
beyond is freely extended--_to you and yours and to everybody, near and
afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call_.

Footnotes

1. See the author's "Story and Philosophy of 'Mormonism'," 136 pp.,
_The Deseret News_, Salt Lake City, Utah.



-- 2 --

WHAT THE "MORMONS" BELIEVE

Their Articles of Faith

WHILE it may be impossible for any religious body to set forth in a
brief statement all the distinguishing features of its doctrines and
practise, it has become usual for churches to embody the fundamentals
of their belief in condensed form as creeds. When asked for a concise
presentation of the principal doctrines accepted by his people, Joseph
Smith, through whose instrumentality the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints was established, responded with the Articles of Faith
presented below. This was in the year 1841.

From the time of their first promulgation The Articles have been in
force as an authorized statement of belief; and they were early adopted
as such by the Church in general conference assembled.

The Articles of Faith

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

1.

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and
in the Holy Ghost.

2.

We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for
Adam's transgression.

3.

We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be
saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

4.

We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel
are:--(1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; (3) Baptism
by immersion for the remission of sins; (4) Laying on of hands for the
Gift of the Holy Ghost.

5.

We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the
laying on of hands, by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel
and administer in the ordinances thereof.

6.

We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive
Church, viz.: apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.

7.

We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions,
healing, interpretation of tongues, etc.

8.

We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated
correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

9.

We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and
we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things
pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

10.

We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration
of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be built upon this [the American]
continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and that
the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

11.

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the
dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege,
let them worship how, where, or what they may.

12.

We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and
magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

13.

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in
doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition
of Paul, we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured
many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is
anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek
after these things.--_Joseph Smith_.

To most of these items many sects professing Christianity could
confidently pledge allegiance; to many of them all Christian bodies
subscribe. Belief in the existence and powers of the Holy Trinity, in
Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, in man's
individual accountability for his acts, in the acceptance of sacred
writ as the Word of God, in the rights of worship according to the
dictates of conscience, in the moral virtues--these professions and
beliefs are a common creed in the realm of present-day Christendom.
There is no peculiarly "Mormon" interpretation, in the light of which
these principles of faith and practise are viewed by the Latter-day
Saints, except, perhaps, in a certain simplicity and literalness of
acceptance.

The Articles of Faith are confessedly but an incomplete summary
of doctrine, as the ninth of the series avers. The atmosphere of
the Church is that of expectancy, of reverent waiting for further
revelation of the Divine will and purpose.

"Mormonism" is alive, and therefore grows and develops with the years.
It promulgates latter-day Scripture as well as the Holy Writ of
centuries remote; and strict comparison demonstrates consistency and
harmony in spirit and principle.

"Mormonism" affirms itself to be the embodiment of the essential
requirements of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as proclaimed by the
Master Himself, and by His duly ordained Apostles in the Primitive
Church, and as taught and administered under Divine authority in the
present dispensation. "Mormonism" is new only as a reestablishment, a
restoration. It is the embodiment of the eternal Gospel, come again. [1]

Footnotes

1. For more detailed treatment see the author's "The Articles of
Faith," 480 pp., _The Deseret News_, Salt Lake City, Utah.



-- 3 --

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Is "Mormonism" Misunderstood Because of Its Unpopular Title?

WHAT'S in a name? So asked one who has been called the chief of English
bards; and hosts of thoughtful minds have been conscious of the same
insistent query springing up as a conception original to each. Who but
the superficial will venture to deny the influence of names? We are
all subject to the witchery of bias and of prejudice for or against;
and the odium or the good repute of a name ofttimes determines our
provisional acceptance or rejection of that for which it stands.

Most of us are in the habit of putting up our knowledge in little
packages, duly ticketed. These we stow away in more or less orderly
fashion, and though we glance betimes at the label we are apt to forget
what any one of the parcels really contains.

"Mormonism" is an unpopular name; the truths for which it stands, the
principles which it embodies, are more readily believed in if left
unlabeled.

It should be borne in mind that the term "Mormon" with its several
variants was first applied by way of nickname to the people now
so designated. But nicknames may be so sanctified by effort and
achievement that they become titles of respect and profound
significance. To this fact history lends definite and abundant
testimony.

The term "Christian" was first applied as an epithet of contempt.
You know how it was hurled in hatred and disdain at the disciples in
Antioch. See Acts 11:26. Yet the followers of Christ accepted the name
and hallowed it by sacrifice and righteous deeds; and today the world
counts but one distinction greater than being called a Christian, and
that is to be a Christian in fact.

The "Mormon" people do not resent the misnomer by which they are
commonly known, and which has been put upon them by popular usage. They
deplore, however, the possible misunderstanding that the Church to
which they belong professes to be the church of Mormon. It should be
known that Mormon was a man, a very distinguished and a very able man
it is true, an eminent prophet and historian according to the record
bearing his name, but a man nevertheless. The "Mormon" Church affirms
itself to be in no sense the church of Mormon, nor the church of Joseph
Smith, nor of Brigham Young, nor of any man other than the Savior and
Redeemer of the race. The true name of this Church, the designation
by which it is officially known is _The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints_.

This is an age of multitudinous sects, cults, and religious societies
in general, and the number increases year by year. Strictly speaking
a sect is a branch or offshoot of a primary institution, and in this
sense numerous sects have arisen and others may arise, all professing
something in common though differing in particulars ofttimes to the
point of antagonism.

Most of the existing sects designate themselves as "churches" with a
distinctive forename to each. As the term "church" in its ordinary
and broad usage is a common possession, unprotected by letters patent
or other guaranty of exclusiveness, its general employment as an
alternative for "sects" or cognate nouns is no breach of law, order or
custom.

Narrowing our consideration to that of churches professing
Christianity, we meet the question as to whether there can be two or
more diverse sects, opposed to each other in essentials of belief and
practise, and both or all be in reality the Church of Jesus Christ. Can
a church that is divided against itself, or a multitude of sects with
discordant doctrines and conflicting claims to priestly authority, be
one and all the same church, and that the Church of God?

The question has been answered by the churches themselves; and their
emphatic reply in the negative is expressed in the names by which
these organizations have chosen to be known. Some have elected to be
called after the names of their founders or eminent promoters, as
Lutherans, Calvinists, Wesleyans, Campbellites. Others proclaim by
their self-chosen titles a preference for appellations denoting some
descriptive feature of their plan of organization or governmental
system, as Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational. Yet others attach
so great significance to distinctive points of doctrine as to make that
the mark of identity, such as Unitarian, Trinitarian, Universalist,
Baptist.

None of us can consistently challenge the vested right of religious
associations to choose their own names. Moreover, the designations
of existing sects, with few exceptions, are self-explanatory,
significantly expressive, and eminently appropriate. In general the
names tell, as explicitly as any brief title could do, just what the
respective sect, society or church professes to be.

Organizations planned and operated for individual and social
betterment, whether known as churches or otherwise, are commendable
institutions. Inasmuch as membership therein is a matter of personal
choice, no objection should be raised against rules established by
common consent or majority decision for the admission of new applicants
or for the discipline of members, provided, of course, that such rules
be administered without infringement upon the rights of outsiders.

But can any association of men, conceived and effected on human
initiative, be anything other than an earthly institution, even though
its aims be lofty and its activities the most praiseworthy?

The Church of Jesus Christ, as an institution both earthly and
heavenly, that is to say having vital relation to mortal life and to
eternity, cannot have been originated at human instance. That church is
not the fruitage of man's planting, neither the offshoot of other and
older institutions. The Church of Jesus Christ, therefore, is not, nor
can it be, a sect.

The Book of Mormon affirms that the Lord Jesus Christ, shortly after
His ascension in Judea, visited the early inhabitants of the Western
Continent and established His Church amongst them. As He had done in
Galilee, so in America. He chose and ordained Twelve Disciples, to whom
He gave authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, which,
as the Lord taught, are essential to salvation. He very clearly set
forth that His Church was to be rightly named, as the following record
attests.

The Twelve, whom He had commissioned to build up the Church, prayed for
instruction, saying: "Lord, we will that thou wouldst tell us the name
whereby we shall call this Church; for there are disputations among the
people concerning this matter." And the Resurrected Lord, there present
in visible Person, answered them in this wise:

"Verily, verily I say unto you, why is it that the people should murmur
and dispute because of this thing? Have they not read the Scriptures,
which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name?
For by this name shall ye be called at the last day. And whoso taketh
upon him my name, and endureth to the end, the same shall be saved
at the last day. Therefore whatsoever ye shall do, ye shall do it in
my name; therefore ye shall call the Church in my name; and ye shall
call upon the Father in my name, that He will bless the Church for my
sake. And how be it my Church, save it be called in my name? For if a
church be called in Moses' name, then it be Moses' church; or if it be
called in the name of a man, then it be the church of a man; but if it
be called in my name, then it is my Church, if it so be that they are
built upon my gospel." (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 27.)

The members of the Church aver that the distinguishing features of
their religious system, in short, the essentials of the philosophy
of "Mormonism" are epitomized in the name of their organization--The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

If the name be used without Divine warrant, its assumption can not fail
to be regarded as a sacrilege; if it has been authoritatively bestowed
one need look no further for explanation of the vitality exhibited by
the Church in so impressive a degree from the day of its organization
to the present.



-- 4 --

"MORMONISM"

A Distinctive Religious System

IN the popular classification of religious bodies, the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, if included at all, is generally given
mention apart from churches and sectarian institutions in general. The
segregation is eminently proper, for this Church is strictly unique.

No well informed commentator, no capable critic in either friendly or
hostile mood, has classed "Mormonism" as the sectarian offspring of
any mother church, nor as any mere variation of a preexisting body.
No church on earth claims, acknowledges or admits any community of
origin with the commonly known but mis-called "Mormon" Church. Nor
does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints assert any such
relationship with other bodies.

At this point it is well to consider the fact that toleration in
religious belief and practise is a fundamental tenet of "Mormonism."
This is set forth in one of the formulated Articles of Faith: "We claim
the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of
our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them
worship how, where, or what they may."

We demand no prerogatives, ask no privileges, beyond what we readily
accede to be the common rights of mankind. Our distinctive teachings
and the claims of the Church as to its commission to preach the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, and administer the saving ordinances thereof, must
be judged on their merits, and in the spirit of testimony, which we
believe the honest-hearted inquirer may gain for himself in the course
of unbiased investigation.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is unique in that it
solemnly affirms to the world that the new dispensation, foretold in
prophecy as a characteristic of the last days precedent to the second
advent of Christ, is established, and that the Holy Priesthood, with
all its ancient authority and power, has been restored to earth.

"Mormonism" affirms that such restoration was a necessity, inasmuch
as mankind had fallen away from the Gospel of Christ during the
dark ages of history, with the inevitable consequence that the Holy
Priesthood had been taken from the earth, and authority to administer
the essential and saving ordinances of the Gospel had been lost. The
condition of spiritual darkness was foretold by prophets who lived
prior to the meridian of time, as also by Jesus Christ while in the
flesh, and by His Apostles, who were left to continue the ministry
after the Lord's departure.

Furthermore, the fact of the great falling away or general apostasy
is admitted, and indeed affirmed, by high ecclesiastical authority.
Consider the forceful declaration of the Church of England, embodied in
her official "Homily Against Peril of Idolatry," first published about
the middle of the 16th century, and still in force as "appointed to be
read in churches."

"So that laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, sects,
and degrees of men, women, and children of whole Christendom--an
horrible and most dreadful thing to think--have been at once drowned in
abominable idolatry; of all other vices most detested of God, and most
damnable to man; and that by the space of eight hundred years and more."

Prophets of olden times were permitted to look beyond the black night
of apostasy and to behold the glorious dawn of the restoration. John,
the Apostle and Revelator, having seen the events in vision, wrote of
the realization as then already attained:

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the
everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud
voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is
come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the
fountains of waters." (Rev. 14:6-7.)

We affirm the literal fulfilment of this gladsome promise through
the ministration of angels in these latter days, by which the Holy
Priesthood has been renewed to man. Thus, in 1823, an angelic personage
ministered to Joseph Smith, and later delivered to the mortal prophet
the ancient record from which the Book of Mormon has been translated.
This record contains "the fulness of the everlasting Gospel" as
delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants of the Western
Continent.

Then, on May 15, 1829, John the Baptist, who held the keys of the
Lesser or Aaronic Priesthood in the earlier dispensation, appeared in
his resurrected state and ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to
that order of Priesthood, comprising "the keys of the ministering of
angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion
for the remission of sins." (D&C 13.)

Later, the presiding three of the ancient Twelve Apostles ordained
these men to the holy apostleship, conferring upon them the Higher
or Melchizedek Priesthood, which comprises all authority for the
administration of the prescribed ordinances of the Gospel, and for the
building up of the Church of Jesus Christ in the current dispensation,
preparatory to the coming of the Christ to reign on earth.

This is the distinctive claim of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. Being under Divine commission so to do, the Church
proclaims these solemn truths, with full recognition of the individual
rights of men to believe or disbelieve according to their choice.



-- 5 --

DIRECT AND SURE

The Church Bold Yet Tolerant

THE establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
was no experiment. Its actual organization as a body corporate was
preceded by visitations of heavenly beings, by definite revelation,
by prophecies as to the unfolding plan of the Divine purpose in these
latter days, and by the publication of the Book of Mormon--a volume of
Scripture which, though comprising the record of ancient peoples, was
new to the modern world.

These and other heavenly manifestations, including the bestowal of the
Holy Priesthood with its expressly defined authority and appointment to
organize and build up the Church, were made through Joseph Smith, who
at the time of the first visitation was a lad in his fifteenth year.

To the earnest student of this unprecedented series of events a
certain dominant characteristic is apparent--the positiveness and
certitude with which the successive avowals of the youthful prophet
were set forth. From his testimony of the glorious theophany by which
the dispensation of the fulness of times was inaugurated, down to his
last inspired utterances immediately preceding his martyrdom, his
doctrinal teachings, his affirmations and prophecies were unweakened by
qualification or ambiguity.

Plain and unembellished by studied rhetoric or dramatic effect, his
solemn averments were free from even the shadow of the tentative or
provisional. He voiced his message fearlessly and in the strength of
simplicity, with no restraining afterthought of opposition, ridicule or
persecution.

True to the character of a real prophet, he gave out only as he
received--line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and
there a little. And behold, the precepts have arrayed themselves
into a scriptural unity; the lines have fallen into order as verses
of a revealed epic; and the little has grown to the fulness of the
everlasting Gospel.

The mission of Joseph Smith and that of the Church he was instrumental
in founding have from the first been before the world in their true
colors. Though the unity of unalterable purpose and unchanging plan is
impressively apparent, there is nothing in the latter-day Scripture
that savors of policy or obscure intent.

Granted that the claims of the Church are bold ones, even strikingly
so, and that some of them when first enunciated stood in disturbing
contrast with certain theological dogmas long regarded as orthodox.
Nevertheless, they were presented with an assurance such as only the
certainty of their Divine source could justify or sufficiently explain.

In this age of free speech and liberty of conscience it is surely
allowable to put forth views and publish affirmations relating to
religious belief, even though the doctrines be opposed to earlier
conceptions, provided the rights of men to accept or reject be duly
respected. Consider the following instances of the solemn avowals made
by Joseph Smith.

He declares that in answer to prayer, in the spring of 1820, he was
visited by two Personages, in the form and likeness of perfect men and
amidst light and glory indescribable, who were none other than God the
Eternal Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; and that the former pointing
to the latter said "This is my beloved Son, hear Him."

Then on September 21, 1823, Joseph Smith was visited by the angel
Moroni, who disclosed to him the depository of the ancient records from
which the Book of Mormon has been since translated. Part of the angel's
message on this occasion, as recorded in the words of the latter-day
prophet, was "that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should
be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues,
or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people."
(Pearl of Great Price, p. 89.)

Is it conceivable that an unschooled youth, of obscure parentage and
humble surroundings, would venture to assert such future distinction
without the assurance of unmistakable commission?

Another of Moroni's predictions is thus stated by Joseph Smith: "He
informed me of great judgments which were coming upon the earth, with
great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence; and that these
grievous judgments would come on the earth in this generation."

Furthermore, the angel cited Scripture from both the Old Testament and
the New, relating to the gathering of Israel, vicarious work for the
dead, and other characteristics of the last days, declaring that all
these earlier prophecies were about to be fulfilled.

In 1832 a revelation was received by Joseph Smith definitely
foretelling the civil war in this country, and specifying the defection
of the State of South Carolina as the beginning. This portentous
prediction followed: "The days will come that war will be poured out
upon all nations," and that by bloodshed, famine, plagues, as well as
by earthquakes and other destructive natural agencies, the inhabitants
of the earth would be brought into mourning and humility.



-- 6 --

WHEAT AND WEEDS

Successive Apostasies from the Gospel

"THE kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in
his field; But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among
the wheat." (Matt. 13:24-25.)

So hath it been from the beginning; so will it be until the end.

The Lord God gave commandment unto Adam, and straightway Satan
countered with sophistry and falsehood disguised as half the truth.
Adam preached the Gospel and administered its essential ordinances
amongst his posterity; "And Satan came among them, saying: I am also
a son of God; and he commanded them, saying: Believe it not; and they
believed it not, and they loved Satan more than God. And men began from
that time forth to be carnal, sensual, and devilish." (Pearl of Great
Price, p. 21.)

Thus, even during the lifetime of the first patriarch, many of his
descendants fell into apostasy and denied the God with whom their great
progenitor had talked face to face.

From Adam to Noah righteous men taught and testified of the truth,
denounced sin and warned sinners; yet all the while Satan sowed
assiduously the tares of wickedness in the hearts of men, and with
such evil success that, excepting Noah and his household, the whole
human family became corrupt. So awful was the condition that the floods
came and swept the ungodly race from the earth; and their rebellious
spirits passed into the state of duress, in which they remained until
the way of repentance was opened to them anew by the ministry of the
disembodied Christ over twenty-three centuries later. See 1 Peter
3:18-20.

As the children of men multiplied and nations developed after the
Deluge, the wholesome plants of Divine truth struggled against the
rank growth of error; therefore the Lord commanded Abraham to leave
his idolatrous country and kindred, that through him and his posterity
the saving powers of the Priesthood might be preserved among men. The
tares of idolatry and its inseparable abominations grew apace. Even the
harrowing experiences of Egyptian bondage failed to extirpate the weeds
from Israel, though the fertilizing effect of humility under suffering
did much to nurture and sustain the precious grain of the covenant.

At the time of the Exodus the Israelites constituted the few whom
the Lord could call His own; and they had to undergo a disciplinary
probation--a course of intensive and purifying cultivation, covering
four decades in the wilderness--before they were deemed fit to
enter the land of their inheritance. They were distinguished as
Jehovah-worshipers, and as such stood apart from the more thoroughly
apostate and degenerate world.

But even Israel's fields were full of tares; and the Lord mercifully
suspended the fulness of the Gospel requirements, which, because
of violation, would have been a means of condemnation; and the law
of carnal commandments, generalized as the Mosaic Code, was given
instead--as a schoolmaster, whose rigid insistence and compelling
restraint, whose rod of correction would, in the course of centuries,
prepare the covenant though recreant people for the reestablishment
of the Gospel--as was effected through the personal ministry of the
Redeemer. See Gal. 3:23-26.

Following the Messianic ministry and apostolic dispensation, another
cloud of apostasy enveloped the world, and for well-nigh sixteen
centuries held the race befogged in its clammy mists. In this murky and
fetid atmosphere the weeds of superstition, unbelief and human dogma
flourished as a dank tropical jungle, while belief in revealed truth
survived only as a wilted growth amidst the prevalent insalubrity.

The last apostasy was general, alike on both hemispheres. For nearly
two centuries after its establishment on the Western Continent, the
Church of Jesus Christ flourished to the blessing of its members. Then
followed disruption and apostasy, the bitter fruitage of sin; and so
was fulfilled the saddening prophecy of Alma concerning the Nephites:

"Yea, and then shall they see wars and pestilences, yea, famines and
bloodshed, even until the people of Nephi shall become extinct. Yea,
and this because they shall dwindle in unbelief, and fall into the
works of darkness, and lasciviousness, and all manner of iniquities.
Yea, I say unto you, that because they shall sin against so great light
and knowledge, yea, I say unto you, that from that day, even the fourth
generation shall not all pass away, before this great iniquity shall
come." (Book of Mormon, Alma 45.)

Following each of these epoch-marking declensions, from the Adamic
to the current dispensation, there has come a period of revival,
rejuvenescence, or as now witnessed, a definite restoration and
reestablishment of the Church of Jesus Christ, by which the tares,
though not yet rooted up to be burned, have been at least prevented
from choking out the wheat.

The application of our Lord's parable of the wheat and the tares to
the great falling away, or the last general apostasy, is thus shown in
latter-day Scripture: "And after they [the Apostles of old] have fallen
asleep, the great persecutor of the church, the apostate, the whore,
even Babylon, that maketh all nations to drink of her cup, in whose
hearts the enemy, even Satan, sitteth to reign, behold he soweth the
tares; wherefore the tares choke the wheat and drive the church into
the wilderness." (D&C 86:3; compare Rev. 12:6, 14.)

But the day of the Church's exile is ended. In unostentatious triumph
she has returned after enforced absence, and is established anew for
the blessing of all who make themselves fit to be partakers of her
bounty.



-- 7 --

A NEW DISPENSATION

Authority by Restoration Not Through Succession

TO act officially in affairs of government, to administer public laws
and ordinances, a man must have been duly elected or appointed and
must have qualified as the law provides. If there be but the shadow of
doubt as to his legal competency, his acts, say as president, senator,
governor, judge or mayor, are almost sure to be challenged; and, if his
claims to authority be invalid, his so-called official acts are justly
pronounced null and void, while the quondam pretender may be liable to
severe penalty.

In like manner authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ must be definitely vested through personal conferment as
the law of God prescribes.

"And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of
God, as was Aaron." (Heb. 5:4).

Aaron was called and set apart to the priestly office by revelation
from God through Moses, and retributive punishment fell upon all who
essayed to minister without authority in the priest's office. Consider
the awful fate of Korah and his associates (Num. 16), the instance of
Uzziah king of Judah (2 Chron. 26), and, in New Testament times, that
of Sceva's sons (Acts 19), all of whom brought upon themselves condign
penalty for blasphemously arrogating the right to officiate in the name
of the Lord.

How great a lesson is writ for warning and guidance in the history of
Saul, king of Israel. He had received his anointing under the hand
of Samuel the prophet. On the eve of battle, when Samuel delayed his
coming to offer sacrifices for victory, Saul presumptuously officiated
at the altar, failing to realize that, king though he was, his royal
authority did not empower him to serve even as a deacon in the
household of God. His sacrilege was one of the principal causes that
led to his rejection by the Lord.

While in the flesh Christ chose His Apostles and ordained them,
bestowing upon them specific authority. Those who were afterward called
through revelation, e. g., Matthias, Saul of Tarsus who came to be
known as Paul the Apostle, Barnabas, and others, were ordained by those
previously invested with the Holy Priesthood.

Elders, priests, bishops, teachers and deacons in the Primitive Church
on the Eastern hemisphere were all similarly ordained; and so a
succession was maintained until the Church, corrupted and apostate, was
no longer worthy to be called the Church of Jesus Christ, because it
was not; and the real Church, characterized by investiture of the Holy
Priesthood, was lost to mankind.

When the Resurrected Lord established His Church on the Western
Continent, He called and personally commissioned Twelve Disciples;
and later, others were with equal definiteness and certainty called
and ordained to priestly functions by revelation through those in
authority; and this order continued in the West until, through
transgression, the people became apostate and succession in the
priesthood no longer obtained. See Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11 and later
chapters.

There is but one church on the earth today claiming authority in the
Holy Priesthood by direct succession from the Primitive Church; and
surely none can consistently assert priestly powers by spontaneous
origination. The rational interpretation of history reveals the literal
fulfilment of ancient prophecy in the absolute loss of sacerdotal
authority during the early centuries of the Christian Era; so that
present-day claim to the Priesthood through unbroken succession from
the Apostles of old rests upon arbitrary assertion only.

If a mother church be devoid of Divine commission in the Holy
Priesthood, definitely and authoritatively vested, no sect springing
from that parent institution can inherit the Priesthood.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints positively avers that
it lays claim to no priestly authority through mortal succession
reaching back to the Primitive Church of the East, nor by descent from
the Nephite Church of Christ as established on the Western Continent.

To the contrary, this Church affirms the complete cessation of Divine
commission in churchly organizations, and the consequent necessity of a
restoration--a new dispensation from the heavens.

This Church disavows any and all derivation of appointment or
commission, direct or implied, from other organizations, Catholic or
Protestant, "established" or dissenting churches sects or parties.
It defends the rights of all men, whether church members or not, to
worship as they severally choose to do, and to believe in and advocate
the genuineness of any sect or church to which they elect to belong;
and, by the same principle of liberty, it claims the right to set forth
its own professions and doctrines, the while bespeaking for these a
dispassionate and prayerful consideration.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints avows that the Holy
Priesthood has been restored to earth in the present age, by means
and manner strictly in accord with prophecy; and that through direct
bestowal from the heavens the authority to administer the ordinances
of the Gospel, which are indispensable to individual salvation, is
operative today in preparation for the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ,
which is near, as hath been predicted by the mouths of holy prophets
and by the coming Lord Himself.



-- 8 --

DIVINE COMMAND AND HUMAN AGENCY

The Church a Democracy

THE compound character of the name-title--The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints--has elicited inquiries from many thoughtful readers.
Does the organization profess to be The Church of Jesus Christ, or The
Church of the Latter-day Saints?

The answer is--both.

As we have already seen, our Lord designated the Church established
by Himself in the meridian of time as "My Church," that is to say,
His Church--The Church of Jesus Christ. And, as also shown, when the
Savior ministered in the resurrected state to the ancient inhabitants
of America, He established His Church amongst them, and particularly
directed that the institution be called by His name as the only
properly descriptive title. See Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 27.

When the Church was reestablished upon earth through the
instrumentality of Joseph Smith the prophet, in 1830, it was
provisionally called the Church of Jesus Christ, in harmony with the
principle and practise established by the Savior among the Nephites,
and to express the Lord's specific designation of the latter-day body
as "My Church."

The early revelations given to the Church contain frequent mention of
common consent or the voice of the members, as essential in matters of
administration. The following excerpts are illustrative:

"No person is to be ordained to any office in this church, where there
is a regularly organized branch of the same, without the vote of that
church."

"And all things shall be done by common consent in the church, by much
prayer and faith, for all things you shall receive by faith. Amen."
(D&C 20 and 26.)

After the people had been trained through the revealed word and by
actual experience in the affairs of Church government, when they had
learned the basal lesson that upon every member rests a measure of
responsibility, and that in consistency and justice each is entitled
to part and voice in the activities of the organized body, the Lord
specified in the following manner the expanded and complete name by
which the institution was to be known. He spoke by revelation directed
to the High Council and "unto all the elders and people of my Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, scattered abroad in all the world.
For thus shall my Church be called in the last days, even The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (115:3-4).

The name thus conferred is a self-explanatory and exclusive title of
distinction and authority. It is an epitome of the cardinal truths and
of the philosophical basis of the system commonly called "Mormonism."
Every prayer that is offered, every ordinance administered, every
doctrine proclaimed by the Church, is voiced in the name of Him whose
Church it is.

Nevertheless, as an association of human membership, as a working
body having relation with the secular law, as a religious society
claiming the rights of recognition and privilege common to all, it is
the people's institution, for the operation of which, so far as such
is dependent upon them, they are answerable to themselves, to the
organization as a unit, and to God.

The plan of organization and government of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints is that of a theodemocracy, whose organic
constitution has been revealed from heaven and is accepted by the
members as their guide in faith, doctrine and practise.

The Church receives commandments through revelation, and when such are
promulgated the assembled body takes action, voting to accept and to
obey the same so far as the Divine direction calls for service.

Such a conception as that of the Church rejecting a Divine revelation
is extreme, and suggests an improbable contingency. Nevertheless,
individuals having membership in the Church may ignore or reject the
commandments of God, and so exhibit the spirit of apostasy in a degree
proportionate to their disaffection; but such declension by the Church
in its entirety is neither to be supposed nor feared.

Adam had his agency, and chose to use it in disobeying the Lord's
injunction. Of the commandment and the alternative we read: "And I, the
Lord God, commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;
thou shalt not eat of it. Nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself,
for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Pearl of Great Price,
pp. 13-14.)

The same principle applies to persons and to the Church as a whole
today. God has not established His Church to make of its members
irresponsible automatons, nor to exact from them blind obedience.
Albeit, blessed is the man who, while unable to fathom or comprehend in
full the Divine purpose underlying commandment and law, has such faith
as to obey. So did Adam in offering sacrifice, yet, when questioned
as to the significance of his service, he answered with faith and
assurance worthy the patriarch of the race: "I know not, save the Lord
commanded me."



-- 9 --

THE HOLY TRINITY

Unity of the Godhead

"WE believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and
in the Holy Ghost."

So runs the first of the "Articles of Faith" of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. A similar asseveration of belief has place
in most creeds or churches called Christian. The Scriptures affirm
the existence of the Supreme Trinity, constituting the Godhead, the
governing Council of the heavens and the earth.

The very name "Trinity" which is commonly current in the literature
of Christian theology, connotes three distinct entities, and such we
believe to be the scriptural signification and therefore expressive of
the actual constitution of the Godhead. Three Personages are comprised,
each designated by the exalted title "God", and each of whom has
separately and individually revealed Himself to mankind; these are (1)
God the Eternal Father, (2) God the Son, or Jesus Christ, and (3) God
the Holy Ghost.

That the three are individually separate and distinct Personages is
evidenced by such Scriptures as the following. As our Lord Jesus Christ
emerged from the baptismal waters of Jordan, John, the officiating
priest, recognized the visible sign of the Holy Ghost, while he saw
before him the Christ with a tangible body of flesh and bones, and
heard the voice of the Eternal Father saying: "This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. 3:16, 17). The three Personages were
there present, each manifesting Himself in a different manner to mortal
sense, and plainly, each distinct from the others.

Again, in that last solemn interview with His apostles on the night
of the betrayal, the Lord Jesus thus cheered with sublime assurance
their sorrowful despair: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I
will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." (John 15:26.)
Could the members of the Trinity be more definitely segregated? That
the Comforter is the Holy Ghost is expressly set forth in the preceding
chapter (John 14:26), and in that passage also the Father and the Son
are as separately specified.

That the Eternal Father and His Son Jesus Christ are individual
Personages is clear from the very fact of the relationship expressed,
for no being can be his own father or his own son. The numerous
Scriptures in which Christ is shown as praying to His Father abundantly
testify of Their distinct personality; and, furthermore, amidst the
indescribable glory of our Lord's transfiguration, from out of the
cloud came the voice of the Father, avowing again: "This is my beloved
Son."

The individual members of the Holy Trinity are united in purpose, plan,
and method. To conceive of disagreement, differences, or dissension
among them would be to regard them as lacking in the attributes of
perfection that characterize Godhood. But that this unity involves any
merging of personality is nowhere attested in Scripture, and the mind
is incapable of apprehending such a union.

In the course of His soulful High-Priestly prayer, Christ supplicated
the Father in behalf of the Apostles, asking "that they may be one"
as He and the Father were one (John 17:11). Surely the Lord did not
intimate that He would have the Apostles lose their individuality and
become one person; and indeed, He had long before assured them that at
a time which is even yet future they "shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Matt. 19:28.)

Human knowledge concerning the attributes of God and the nature of
the Godhead is such as has been revealed from the heavens. Divine
revelation is the ultimate source of all we know of the being and
personality of the Deity. Through revelation in ancient days God was
made known to man--to Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the
prophets. And in the present age, after mankind had in great measure
come to reject the plain and simple truths of a personal God and His
actual Son Jesus Christ, such as the Scriptures affirm, the Father and
the Son have revealed Themselves anew.

Joseph Smith has given us his solemn testimony that in the early
spring of 1820, while engaged in solitary prayer, to which he had been
impelled by scriptural admonition (James 1:5), he was visited by the
Eternal Father and His Son Jesus Christ, and that the Father, pointing
to the Christ, spake, saying: "This is my beloved Son, hear Him."

In this wise was ushered in the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times,
foretold by the Apostle of old (Eph. 1:10). In 1820 there was on earth
one mortal who knew beyond all question that the human conception of
Deity, as an incorporeal essence of something possessing neither form
nor substance, is as devoid of truth in respect to both the Father and
the Son as its statement in formulated creeds is incomprehensible.

Joseph Smith has proclaimed anew to the world the simple truth that
the Eternal Father and His glorified Son Jesus Christ are in form and
stature perfect Men; and that in Their physical likeness mankind has
been created in the flesh.



-- 10 --

ORIGINAL SIN

Are All to Suffer from it Eternally?

"WE believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for
Adam's transgressions."

Belief in original sin, with its dread incubus as a burden from
which none can escape, has for ages cast its depressing shadow over
the human heart and mind. Accepting as fact the account outlined in
Genesis concerning the transgression of the parents of the race, every
thoughtful reader must have wondered as to whether he is to suffer
throughout this life and beyond for a deed in which he had no part, and
for which, according to his natural conception of justice and right,
he was not even indirectly responsible. If he assumes an affirmative
answer to his honest query, he must have stood aghast at the seeming
injustice of it all.

The Scriptures proclaim in definite terms the fact of individual
responsibility, and as an indispensable consequence, the Free Agency of
Man. Freedom to choose or reject and accountability for the choice go
hand in hand. The word of Divine revelation made the matter plain very
early in the history of mankind. To evil-hearted Cain the Lord said:
"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not
well, sin lieth at the door." (Gen. 4:7.)

A knowledge of good and evil is essential to progress, and the school
of experience in mortality has been provided for the acquirement of
such knowledge. The Divine purpose was thus enunciated by an ancient
Hebrew prophet:

"Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself.
Wherefore man could not act for himself, save it should be that he was
enticed by the one or the other. . .. Wherefore, men are free according
to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto
man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the
great mediation of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according
to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men
might be miserable like unto himself." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:16
and 27.)

And a later prophet voiced the eternal truth as addressed to his
wayward fellows:

"And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth,
perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto
himself; for behold, ye are free." (Book of Mormon, Helaman 14:30.)

But, many have asked how can man be regarded as free to choose
right or wrong when he is predisposed to evil through the heritage
of original sin bequeathed to him by Adam? Heredity at most is but
tendency, not compulsion; and we have no warrant for doubt in the
light of revealed truth concerning the inherent justice and mercy of
God that every element of cause or inflicted tendency will be taken
into righteous account in the judgment of each and every soul. The man
who can intelligently ask or consider the question framed above shows
his capability of distinguishing between good and evil, and can not
consistently excuse himself for wilful wrongdoing.

Our first parents disobeyed the command of God by indulging in food
unsuited to their condition; and, as a natural consequence, they
suffered physical degeneracy, whereby bodily weakness, disease, and
death came into the world. Their posterity have inherited the resultant
ills, to all of which we now say flesh is heir; and it is true that
these human imperfections came through disobedience, and are therefore
the fruits of sin. But as to accountability for Adam's transgression,
in all justice Adam alone must answer. The present fallen status of
mankind, as expressed in our mortal condition, was inaugurated by Adam
and Eve; but Divine justice forbids that we be accounted sinners solely
because our parents transgressed.

Though the privations, the vicissitudes, and the unrelenting toil
enforced by the state of mortal existence be part of our heritage from
Adam, we are enriched thereby; for in just such conditions do we find
opportunity to develop the powers of soul that shall enable us to
overcome evil, to choose the good, and to win salvation and exaltation
in the mansions of our Father.

If the expression "original sin" has any definite signification it must
be taken to mean the transgression of our parents in Eden. We were not
participators in that offense. We are not inheritors of original sin,
though we be subjects of the consequences. The millions who have been
slaughtered or have otherwise met death because of the greatest war in
history, and those other and more millions of helpless dependents who
have endured such agonies as to make of death a blessed relief, are all
involved in the frightful results of the precipitation of war by their
respective rulers; yet who can doubt that when a just accounting is
called, those who brought about the carnage and the suffering shall be
made to answer, not the irresponsible victims? And to everyone who has
suffered blamelessly, He who notes even the sparrow's fall shall give
full meed of recompense.

Why waste time and effort in bewailing what Adam did? Better is it
to face like men the actual conditions of our existence and to meet
the requirements of righteous living. From the effects of Adam's
transgression full redemption is assured through the atonement wrought
by Jesus Christ our Lord. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:22.)



-- 11 --

THE COOPERATIVE PLAN OF SALVATION

Christ Alone Cannot Save You

"WE believe that through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be
saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."

In earlier articles of this series it has been shown that mortality
is divinely provided as a means of schooling and test, whereby the
spirit offspring of God may develop their powers and demonstrate their
characters. Every one of us has been advanced from the unembodied or
preexistent state to our present condition, in which the individual
spirit is temporarily united with a body of flesh and bones. Yet this
promotion to the mortal state is regarded by many as a degradation;
and we are prone to bewail the fallen condition of the race as an
unmitigated calamity. The Scriptures make plain the glorious truth
that man may rise far above the plane upon which he existed before his
birth in the flesh. We have stooped that we may conquer; we have been
permitted to descend only that we may attain greater heights.

The transgression of our parents in Eden was foreseen, and the Divine
plan provided a means of redemption. The Eternal Father, who is verily
the Father of our spirits, well understood the diverse natures and
varied capacities of His unembodied children; and it was plain to Him,
even from the beginning, that in the school of mortal life some would
succeed while others would fail; some would be faithful and others
false; some would choose the good, others the evil; some would seek
the way of life while others would follow the road to destruction. He
foresaw that His commandments would be disobeyed and His law violated;
and that men, shut out from His presence and left to themselves would
sink rather than rise, would retrograde rather than advance, and would
be lost to the heavens. It was plain to Him that death would enter the
world, and that the possession of bodies by His children would be of
brief individual duration.

A Redeemer was chosen, and that even before the foundation of the
world. He, the first-born among all the spirit children of God, was
to come to earth, clothed with the attributes of both Godhood and
manhood, to teach men the saving principles of the eternal Gospel
and so establish on earth the terms and conditions of salvation. In
consummation of His mission, Christ gave up His life as a voluntary and
vicarious sacrifice for the race. Through the Atonement wrought by Him
the power of death has been overcome; for while all men must die, their
resurrection is assured. The effect of Christ's Atonement upon the race
is twofold:

1. The eventual resurrection of all men, whether righteous or wicked.
This constitutes Redemption from the Fall, and, since the Fall came
through individual transgression, in all justice relief therefrom must
be made universal and unconditional.

2. The providing of a means whereby reparation may be made and
forgiveness be obtained for individual sin. This constitutes Salvation,
and is made available to all through obedience to the laws and
ordinances of the Gospel.

Between redemption from the power of death and salvation in the Kingdom
of Heaven there is a vital difference. Man alone cannot save himself;
Christ alone cannot save him. The plan of salvation is cooperative. The
Atonement effected by the Lord Jesus Christ has opened the way; it is
left to every man to enter therein and be saved or to turn aside and
forfeit salvation. God will force no man either into heaven or into
hell.

Jacob, a Nephite prophet, has given us a masterly summary of the
results of our Lord's Atonement, both as to the universal redemption
from death, and the conditions upon which individual salvation may be
obtained:

"For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan
of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection,
and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall;
and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became
fallen, they were cut off from the presence of the Lord; Wherefore it
must needs be an infinite atonement; save it should be an infinite
atonement, this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore,
the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an
endless duration. . .. And it shall come to pass, that when all men
shall have passed from this first death unto life, insomuch as they
have become immortal, they must appear before the judgment-seat of the
Holy One of Israel; and then cometh the judgment, and then must they
be judged according to the holy judgment of God. . .. And he suffereth
this, that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might
stand before him at the great and judgment day. And he commandeth all
men that they must repent, and be baptized in his name, having perfect
faith in the Holy One of Israel, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom
of God. And if they will not repent and believe in his name, and be
baptized in his name, and endure to the end, they must be damned; for
the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has spoken it." (Book of Mormon,
2 Nephi 9:6, 7, 15, 22-24).



-- 12 --

THE NEED OF A REDEEMER

Man Cannot Exalt Himself

THE Scriptures inform us that, prior to his transgression in Eden,
Adam held direct and personal communion with God; and that one of the
immediate consequences of his fall, which was brought about through
disobedience, was his forfeiture of that exalted association. He was
shut out from the presence of God, and though he heard the Divine Voice
he no longer was permitted to behold the Presence of the Lord. This
banishment was to the man spiritual death; and its infliction brought
into effect the predicted penalty, that in the day of his sin he would
surely die. See Gen. 2:17; Pearl of Great Price, p. 14.

Through partaking of food unsuited to their condition and against
which they had been specifically forewarned, the man and his wife
became subject to physical degeneracy; and, eventually, as Satan the
arch-tempter had foreseen, both the man and the woman had to suffer
bodily death. Their offspring were directly affected by the hereditary
enthralment, to which Abel fell a victim even during the life-time of
his parents.

Death came into the world through sin; the imperfections and frailties
incident to the mortal state are conducive to sin; and man is prone
in an inexcusable degree to readily yield thereto. So general is sin
operative in the world that the wise comment of the ancient preacher
stands unchallenged: "There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth
good and sinneth not." (Eccles. 7:20). And the admonitory precept given
by John the Apostle has lost none of its inspired forcefulness with
time: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8).

This sinful and fallen condition of mankind and the universal
infliction of death are dominant elements of Satan's diabolical scheme
to subdue the embodied spirits, whom he, as the rebellious son of the
morning, had failed to draw to his standard in the conflict of primeval
hosts. See Rev. 12:7-9; Isa. 14:12; also D&C 29:36-38 and 76:25-27.
God provided a way by which His spirit-children would become embodied
as a means of advancement; Satan introduced degeneracy and death in an
attempt to thwart the Divine purpose.

Death may claim its victim in infancy or youth, in the period of
life's prime or when the snows of age have settled heavily upon the
venerable head; it may come through disease or accident, by violence,
or as what we call the result of natural causes; but come it must, as
Satan well knows; and in that knowledge lies his present though but
temporary triumph. But the ways of God, as they ever have been and ever
shall be, are infinitely more potent than the deepest designs of men
or devils; and the Satanic machinations to make death perpetual and
supreme were foreseen and provided against even before the first man
had been clothed in flesh. The Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ was
ordained to overcome death, and to provide a means of ransom from sin
and consequent deliverance from the dominion of Satan.

As the natural and inevitable penalty incident to Adam's fall came
upon the race through individual transgression, it would be manifestly
unjust and therefore impossible as part of the Divine plan to make all
men suffer the results thereof without provision for emancipation.
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Therefore
as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation;
even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life." (Rom. 5:12, 18). And further: "For since
by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor.
15:21, 22; see further Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:11, 12).

Without assistance from some power superior to his own, fallen man
would remain eternally in his state of spiritual banishment from the
presence of God. He is tainted and defiled through sin; and though
he must pass the gates of death, that change from the embodied to
the disembodied state cannot consistently be regarded as a means of
ransom from the effect of transgression. We find in Nature an analogy
applicable to our present demonstration; though in its use the present
writer claims no credit for originality.

The lifeless mineral, belonging to the lowest of the "three kingdoms,"
may grow big through accretion of substance, and may attain relative
perfection of structure and form as in the crystal. But, though placed
in the most favorable environment, no mineral particle unassisted by
the power incident to life can become part of a living organism such
as the plant. The living plant, however, may reach down to the mineral
plane, and by absorption and assimilation make the mineral part of its
own organic tissue. So the plant, though of itself utterly powerless to
attain the yet higher plane of animal tissue, may be assimilated by the
animal and become part thereof. And so with respect to either plant or
animal substance becoming a constituent of human tissue.

So for the advancement of man from his present fallen state to the
higher condition of spiritual life, a power greater than his own is
requisite. Through the operation of laws obtaining in the spiritual
world man may be reached and lifted; himself he cannot exalt. A
Redeemer and Savior is essential to the accomplishment of the Father's
plan, which is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of
man" (Pearl of Great Price, p. 7); and that Redeemer and Savior is
Jesus the Christ, beside whom there is and can be no other.



-- 13 --

CHRIST'S UNIQUE STATUS

As Redeemer and Savior of the World

TO hosts of earnest and thoughtful people, comprising many who devoutly
believe in the efficacy of our Lord's atoning death as a means of
redemption from death and salvation from sin, it is a matter of
surpassing wonder that the sacrifice of a single life could be made an
effective means of emancipation for mankind.

Scriptures ante-dating the Savior's earthly life plainly aver that the
Atonement to be made by Him was to be a vicarious sacrifice, voluntary
and love-inspired on His part, and universal in its application so
far as human-kind would avail themselves of its beneficent means.
These conditions were confirmed by the personal affirmations of the
embodied Christ, and are attested by Scriptures post-dating the tragic
consummation on Calvary.

The concept of vicarious service, in which one may act or officiate
for and in behalf of another, is as old as the race. It is, however,
fundamentally opposed to the unscriptural assumption that the merits
of one man may be accounted to the cancellation of another's sins.
Scriptures both ancient and modern, the traditions of the human family,
the rites of altar sacrifice, and even the sacrileges of heathen
idolatry involve the basal conception of vicarious atonement. This
principle, of Divine establishment in its original and uncorrupted
form, was revealed to Adam (Pearl of Great Price, pp. 19-20), who
offered sacrifices in the similitude of the then future death of the
Lamb of God, and was taught and practised by later prophets down to the
time of Christ.

The Scriptures relieve us from the assumption that any ordinary mortal,
by voluntarily giving up his life even as a martyr to the best of
causes, could become a ransom for the sins of his fellows and a victor
over death. Jesus Christ, though He lived and died as one of the human
family, was of unique nature. Never has another such as He walked the
earth. Christ was the only Being among all the embodied spirit-children
of God suited to and acceptable as the great sacrifice of atonement, in
these definite and distinct respects:

1. He was the One chosen and foreordained in the heavens to this
specific service.

2. He was and is the Only Begotten of the Father in the body, and
therefore the only Being ever born to earth who possessed in their
fulness the inherent attributes of both Godhood and manhood.

3. He was and is the one and only sinless Man who has lived in
mortality.

Concerning our Lord's foreordination as the Redeemer and Savior, He
has given us personal testimony with which the utterances of prophets
who lived before His birth and apostles who taught after His death are
in harmony. Twenty-two centuries before the meridian of time, the then
unembodied Christ revealed Himself to a Book of Mormon prophet, saying:
"Behold I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to
redeem my people. Behold I am Jesus Christ." (Book of Mormon, Ether
3:14). Unto Moses the Father spake, saying: "Thou art in the similitude
of mine Only Begotten, and mine Only Begotten is and shall be the
Savior." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 2). These Scriptures are in accord
with Peter's testimony of Christ as "a Lamb without blemish and without
spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world."
(1 Peter 1:19-20).

As the Eternal Father's Only Begotten Son in the flesh, Christ
possessed the inborn power to withstand death indefinitely, and this
just as naturally as that He, being the offspring of a mortal mother,
should derive the ability to die. Jesus Christ inherited through
the operation of the natural law of heredity the physical, mental,
and spiritual attributes of His parents--the Father immortal and
glorified, the mother human. He could not be slain until His hour had
come, the hour in which He would voluntarily give up His life, and
permit His own decease as an act of will. How else are His definite
asseverations concerning Himself to be construed? Consider for example
this: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life,
that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down
of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
again." (John 10:17-18). And further: "For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." (John
5:26).

Christ died, not as other men have died or shall die, because of
inability to escape death, but for a special purpose by voluntary
surrender. Thus, the atoning sacrifice was no usual death of an
ordinary man, but the decease of One who had the power to live. It was
a sacrifice, indeed! [1]

As a sinless Man Christ was exempt from the dominion of Satan; and
was sublimely conscious of His own perfect probity. He challenged
assailants with the pertinent demand "Which of you convinceth me of
sin?" (John 8:46); and in the hour of His entrance into Gethsemane
solemnly averred: "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in
me." (John 14:30).

Had our Lord died as the result of Satan's power over Him through
transgression, His death would have been but an individual experience,
expiatory in no degree of any offenses but His own. His absolute
freedom from spot or blemish of sin made Him eligible, His humility
and willingness rendered Him acceptable as the propitiatory sacrifice
for the sins of the world. In these respects, as in that of His having
life in Himself and therefore power over death, He was of a status
absolutely unique among men. With this knowledge spake the ancient
Hebrew prophet, saying: "As the Lord God liveth, there is none other
name given under heaven, save it be this Jesus Christ of which I have
spoken, whereby man can be saved." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25:20).

Footnotes

1. For comprehensive treatment see the author's work "Jesus the
Christ," 800 pp., _The Deseret News_, Salt Lake City, Utah.



-- 14 --

PHILOSOPHY OF THE ATONEMENT

Its Two-fold Effect

BELIEF in the efficacy of the death of Jesus Christ as a means of
atonement, whereby redemption and salvation are made possible, is an
essential feature of distinctively Christian religion. That belief if
sustained by works constitutes faith in or acceptance of the Christ as
the Only Begotten Son of God, and is supported by the Holy Scriptures
of all ages. Nevertheless, to most of us, the fact of the Atonement is
a great mystery.

Be it remembered that the effect of the Atonement is two-fold: (1)
Redemption of the human race from physical death, which entered the
world as a result of Adam's transgression; and (2) Salvation, whereby
means of relief from the results of individual sin are provided.

Victory over death and the tomb became manifest in the resurrection
of the crucified Christ. Of all who have lived in the flesh He was
the first to come from the grave with spirit and body reunited, a
resurrected, immortalized Soul. Justly, therefore, is He called "the
firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20); "the firstborn from the
dead" (Col. 1:18); and "the first begotten of the dead." (Rev. 1:5).

Immediately following our Lord's resurrection, "many bodies of the
saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his
resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."
(Matt. 27:52-53).

We learn that in due time everyone who has lived and died on earth
shall be resurrected, "they that have done good, unto the resurrection
of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
damnation." (John 5:29). However, the order in which we shall be
resurrected is determined by individual conditions of righteousness
or guilt. (See 1 Cor. 15:23; Rev. 20:5-6.) A latter-day Scripture,
describing the general resurrection of the just, incident to the
approaching advent of Christ, embodies the Lord's declaration in these
words: "The trump of God shall sound both long and loud, and shall say
to the sleeping nations, Ye saints arise and live; ye sinners stay and
sleep until I shall call again." (D&C 43:18).

The second effect of the Atonement makes salvation possible to all
men through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel; and
of these the following are fundamental: (1) Faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ; (2) Repentance; (3) Baptism by immersion for the remission of
sins; (4) Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

It is evident that but for the Atonement accomplished by the Savior,
there could be no resurrection from the dead (see Book of Mormon, 2
Nephi 9:7-12); and advancement from the disembodied state would be
impossible. And just as plainly the Scriptures declare that without the
Atonement of Christ mankind would be left in their sins, without means
of making amends therefor and receiving remission thereof.

We have learned but little of the eternal laws operative in the
heavens; but that God's purposes are accomplished through and by law
is beyond question. There can be no irregularity, inconsistency,
arbitrariness or caprice in His doings, for such would mean injustice.
Therefore, the Atonement must have been effected in accordance with
law. The self-sacrificing life, the indescribable agony, and the
voluntary death of One who had life in Himself with power to halt His
torturers at any stage, and whom none could slay until He permitted,
must have constituted compliance with the eternal law of justice,
propitiation and expiation by which victory over sin and death could be
and has been achieved. Through the mortal life and sacrificial death of
our Lord Jesus Christ the demands of justice have been fully met, and
the way is opened for the lawful ministration of mercy so far as the
effects of the Fall are concerned.

Sin, followed by death, came into the world through the transgression
of one man. The entailment of mortality upon that man's posterity, with
all its elements of a fallen state, is natural, we say, because we
think we know something about heredity. Is it any more truly natural
that one man's transgression should be of universal effect than that
the redeeming and saving achievement of One, fully empowered and
qualified for the work of atonement, should be of universal blessing?
The ancient Apostles were explicit in answer. Thus spake Paul:
"Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came
upon all men unto justification of life." (Rom. 5:18). And further:
"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." (1 Tim. 2:5-6).

Christ, victor over sin and death, established His right to prescribe
the conditions under which man may attain salvation, and these are
summarized as obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. That
the physical, mental, and spiritual agony preceding and accompanying
the crucifixion was real and necessary to the accomplishment of His
fore-appointed mission has been affirmed by the Christ in the current
dispensation: "For behold I, God, have suffered these things for all,
that they might not suffer if they would repent; but if they would not
repent, they must suffer even as I. Which suffering caused myself, even
God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at
every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit: and would that I might
not drink the bitter cup and shrink--Nevertheless, glory be to the
Father, and I partook and finished my preparation unto the children of
men. Wherefore, I command you again to repent." (D&C 19:16-20).



-- 15 --

HOW DOES CHRIST SAVE?

His Plan Combines Justice and Mercy

THE results of the Atonement accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ
comprise (1) universal deliverance from bodily death, that is to say
the assured resurrection of all the dead, and (2) deliverance from the
effects of individual sin.

It is but just that since death has been entailed upon the entire race
through the act of our first parents, redemption therefrom should
be likewise universal, without effort or sacrifice on our part.
We shall each be resurrected from death, our disembodied spirits
tabernacling again in their bodies of flesh and bones, whether we
be relatively clean, or filthy from sin; but the time or order of
our respective liberation from the grave will be determined by our
state of righteousness or guilt. So the Scriptures aver. (See e. g.
John 5:28-29; 1 Cor. 15:23; Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9:6-13; and D&C
88:96-102.)

Herein is a lawful adjustment between justice and mercy. We are mortal
through no personal fault; we shall be made immortal without personal
merit. Such is justice. And though many have committed crimes far
more heinous than Adam's disobedience, even they shall eventually be
absolved from their hereditary mortality. Such is mercy.

The Divine plan of salvation, made effective through the Atonement,
is likewise of universal application, so that every man may become a
beneficiary thereof; but that plan is not self-operative. The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints summarizes the conditions in this
wise:

"We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for
Adam's transgression.

"We believe that, through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be
saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."

However great his moral weakness and sinful tendencies entailed by
heredity, every responsible individual knows right from wrong, with
some degree of conviction; and in the final judgment of that soul every
element, whether of extenuation or crimination, will be taken into
due account. Means of making amends for sin, and thereby establishing
eligibility as fit subjects for remission or forgiveness, are freely
offered to all men; but the prescribed conditions must be complied with
or the incubus of sin can not be lifted.

Salvation is not to be had for the mere asking. It is too precious
a pearl to be wantonly cast at the feet of the unrepentant and
unregenerate who, heedless of its eternal worth, would fain tread it
into the mire wherein they wallow. Christ's plan for saving the souls
of men contemplates no universal and unconditional remission of sins.
That would be justice travestied and mercy corrupted. So far as I am
personally responsible for sin, I, and I alone am accountable. This is
just. But though I make all material restitution possible to my brother
whom I may have wronged, I cannot alone wipe the stain of guilt from
my soul. To obtain remission from God whose laws I have violated, to
be again reconciled to Him through expiation for my transgression, I
am in dire need of help. That help is provided through obedience to
the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am not left
without hope; but on the contrary have the Divine assurance of possible
emancipation. This is mercy, indeed.

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16). So spake the Christ. The
belief here specified must mean that active, vital, potent belief which
we distinctively designate faith. A mere assent of the mind to any
proposition, without application and action, remains a mental concept
and nothing more. Our Lord's association of belief with baptism is
proof that no empty or idle belief can avail to save. Genuine faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ naturally leads to obedience to His commands; and
the firstfruits of faith are embodied in repentance. None but the truly
repentant believer is an acceptable subject for baptism.

Thus no man can consistently hope for salvation in the Kingdom of God
except through the Atonement of Jesus Christ; and the Atonement is made
operative for the remission of sins through individual compliance with
the conditions explicitly set forth by "the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him." (Heb. 5:9). Christ's method of saving
souls is that of providing definite means, which any one may accept or
reject to his own eternal gain or loss.

Universal amnesty for crime may serve to increase crime. God's system
of benevolence, which comprises and exceeds all that we call charity,
consists in helping sinners to help themselves. Indiscriminate giving
fosters pauperism in both the temporal and the spiritual sense. Man
alone cannot save himself; and just as truly, Christ alone cannot save
him. Obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel is the price of
salvation.

An ancient Hebrew prophet thus set forth in simplicity the plan of
salvation dependent upon the Atonement of Christ:

"His blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen by the
transgression of Adam, who have died, not knowing the will of God
concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned. But, wo, wo unto him
who knoweth that he rebelleth against God; for salvation cometh to
none such, except it be through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus
Christ." (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:11-12).

In these latter days the Lord hath given this commandment unto the
Church: "Thou shalt declare repentance and faith on the Savior and
remission of sins by baptism and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost."
(D&C 19:31.)



-- 16 --

HEAVEN AND HELL

Graded Conditions in the Hereafter

THE destiny of souls in the hereafter is a subject of persistent
interest and concern in human belief and speculation. Even pagan
literature and the languages of heathendom testify to a general though
ofttimes vague conception of two widely separated places or strongly
contrasted states of future existence, which are in the main equivalent
to the heaven and the hell of dogmatic theology.

The Holy Scriptures generalize the future estate of the righteous as
heaven, and the opposite as hell, without giving warrant, however,
for the belief that but two places or kingdoms are provided, to one
or the other of which every soul is to be consigned according to the
balance-sheet of his life's account, and perhaps on a very small margin
of merit or guilt. Equally unscriptural is the inference that the state
of the soul at death determines that soul's place and environment
throughout eternity, forever deprived of opportunity of progression.

When left to his imagination, without the guidance of revelation, man
conjures up a heaven and a hell to suit his fancy. Thus, to the mind
of the savage, heaven is a hunting-ground with game a-plenty; to the
carnal, heaven promises perpetual gratification of senses and passions;
to the lover of truth and the devotee of righteousness, heaven is the
assurance of limitless advancement in wisdom and achievement. And to
each of these, hell is the eternal realization of deprivation, loss,
disappointment and consequent anguish.

Divine revelation is the only source of sure knowledge as to what
awaits man beyond the grave, and from this we learn that at death
the spirits of all men pass to an intermediate state, in which they
associate with their kind, the good with the good, the wicked with the
wicked, and so shall endure in happiness or awful suspense until the
time appointed for their resurrection. Paradise is the dwelling place
of relatively righteous spirits awaiting the glorious dawn of the
resurrection. The final judgment, at which all men shall appear before
the bar of God, is to follow their resurrection from the dead. We shall
stand in our resurrected bodies of flesh and bones to receive from
Jesus Christ, who shall judge the world, the sentence we individually
merit, whether it be "Come ye blessed of my Father" or "Depart from me
ye cursed." (See Matt. 25:31-46.)

In His solemn discourse to the Apostles immediately prior to the
betrayal our Lord sought to cheer their saddened hearts with the
assurance, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so,
I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto
myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2, 3.)

Here is conclusive proof of varied conditions in the world beyond;
and the teachings of Paul are incisive as to the state of resurrected
souls: "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but
the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is
another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon,
and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another
star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead." (1 Cor.
15:40-42.)

Latter-day revelation avers even more explicitly the fact of numerous
and graded states provided for the souls of men. There is a Celestial
Kingdom, into which shall enter all who have won not alone Salvation,
but Exaltation. And who are these blessed ones?

"They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his
name and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in
the water in his name, and this according to the commandment which he
has given; that by keeping the commandments they might be washed and
cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit." (D&C, 76).

Next in order is the Terrestrial Kingdom, in which shall be saved those
who, though honorable according to the codes of men, have failed in
valiant and aggressive service in the cause of God, and also those who
have died in ignorance of the prescribed "laws and ordinances of the
Gospel."

"Behold, these are they who died without law, and also they who are
the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached
the gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in
the flesh; who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but
afterwards received it. These are they who are honorable men of the
earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men."

Yet lower is the Telestial Kingdom, and of its inhabitants we read:

"These are they who received not the gospel of Christ, neither the
testimony of Jesus. These are they who deny not the Holy Spirit. These
are they who are thrust down to hell. These are they who shall not be
redeemed from the devil, until the last resurrection, until the Lord,
even Christ the Lamb shall have finished his work. . . . But behold,
and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world,
that they were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven,
or as the sand upon the sea shore."

Far below the lowest of these kingdoms of glory is the fate or state
decreed for the souls who have sinned in the full light of knowledge
and with conscious guilt, those who having received the testimony
of Christ have ruthlessly and wantonly denied it in the interest
of temporary gain or gratification, who have fallen so far in
transgression as to be known by the awful name "sons of perdition," for
whom no forgiveness is promised. (See D&C, 76:32-38).

Thus is it provided that every soul shall inherit according to his
deserts under the inviolable laws of God. Salvation is relative.
He who attains the Telestial state is saved from the fate of utter
Perdition; he who wins a place in the Terrestrial is raised above the
lesser glory; and those who merit exaltation in the Celestial kingdom
are supremely blessed, for they shall dwell and serve with God and His
Christ eternally.



-- 17 --

IN THE REALM OF THE DEAD

Paradise--What of the Spirits in Prison?

"WE believe that through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be
saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."

No limitation is here expressed with respect to the living or the dead.
Who are the living but the few just now tabernacled in mortal bodies
destined sooner or later to die? Who are the dead but the uncounted
myriads who once lived in the flesh and have already passed to the
world of the disembodied? If the Atonement accomplished by the Lord
Jesus Christ be a means of salvation to the few only who constituted
the living during some specific period, or even to all who have heard
and accepted the Gospel while in the body, the sacrifice made by the
Son of God becomes of limited and small effect. The sure word of
Scripture declares otherwise.

Christ affirmed that His mission as the Redeemer and Savior of the race
extended beyond the grave. Consider the profound significance of His
words: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is,
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that
hear shall live. . . . Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in
the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, And shall
come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life;
and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."
(John 5:25-29).

Jesus Christ died upon the cross in the literal sense in which all
men die. While the corpse lay in the rock-hewn sepulchre the immortal
Christ existed as a disembodied Spirit. Where was He, and what were
His activities in the interval between His death on Calvary and His
emergence from the tomb with spirit and body reunited--a resurrected
Soul? The most natural assumption is that He went where the spirits
of the dead ordinarily go; and that in the sense in which He had
been while in the flesh a Man among men, He was during the period of
disembodiment a Spirit among spirits. The Scriptures confirm this
conception as true.

While in the bodiless state our Lord ministered among the departed,
both in Paradise and in the prison realm where dwelt in a state of
durance the spirits of the disobedient. To this effect testified Peter:
"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit: By which also He went and preached unto the
spirits in prison." (1 Peter 3:18, 19).

And further: "For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them
that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh,
but live according to God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6).

One of the two condemned malefactors crucified by our Lord's side
reviled Him; the other, who was penitent, supplicated the dying Christ
saying: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom"; and to
this appeal the Lord replied with the blessed assurance: "Verily I say
unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:42, 43).

The spirit of Jesus and that of the repentant sinner left their
crucified bodies and went to the same place in the spirit world. But
neither of them at that time went to Heaven, the abode of the Eternal
Father; for, on the third day following, Jesus, then a resurrected
Being, positively stated to the weeping Magdalene: "I am not yet
ascended to my Father," and added as to an event then future, "but go
to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your
Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20:17).

Christ and the contrite thief went to Paradise; but Paradise is not the
distinctive abode of God. To infer that the crucified transgressor was
saved by his dying confession, and was granted a special passport to
Heaven with sins unexpiated and without his compliance with "the laws
and ordinances of the Gospel" is to disregard both letter and spirit of
Scripture, and to ignore both reason and the sense of justice. We find
here no warrant for belief in the efficacy of death-bed confession as
a means of grace. Only through individual faith, repentance, and works
can remission of sins be obtained. The dying malefactor who won from
the Christ the comforting promise of a place in Paradise had manifested
both faith and repentance. The blessing promised him was to the effect
that he should that day hear the Gospel preached in Paradise. In the
acceptance or rejection of the message of salvation he would be left
an agent unto himself. The requirement of obedience to "the laws and
ordinances of the Gospel" was not waived, suspended, or superseded in
his case, nor shall it be for any soul.

For the dead who have lived and died in ignorance of the requirements
of salvation, as, in another sense, for the disobedient who later
come to repentance, the plan of God provides for the vicarious
administration of the essential ordinances to the living posterity
in behalf of their dead progenitors. Of this saving labor Malachi
prophesied in solemn plainness (Malachi 4:5, 6); and the glorious
fulfilment has been witnessed in this modern age. The great Temples
reared by the Latter-day Saints are maintained in large part for the
service of the living in behalf of the dead.



-- 18 --

WHY ARE THEY BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD?

Elijah the Prophet on the American Continent

IN one of his letters to the Corinthians, Paul the Apostle discusses
the resurrection of the dead, which was a subject of contention at the
time of his writing. Having shown that through the Atonement of Jesus
Christ all mankind shall be eventually redeemed from bodily death, the
scholarly Apostle asks: "Else what shall they do which are baptized for
the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for
the dead?" (1 Cor. 15:29). As the question is put by way of finality
and climax to the preceding argument and is without explanatory
comment, we must conclude that the subject involved no new or strange
doctrine; but to the contrary that the people both understood and
practised the ordinance of vicarious baptism by the living in behalf of
the dead.

To Nicodemus our Lord declared in such plainness as to preclude
dispute: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5). That this new birth
comprises water baptism by immersion, as was at that time being
administered by John the Baptist, and the higher baptism of the Spirit,
which Christ Himself came to give, is evident from the scriptural
context. Note the incisiveness of our Lord's affirmation that without
baptism man cannot enter the kingdom of God. No distinction is made, no
exceptions are implied. The indispensable condition is applicable to
all men whether living or dead.

Nicodemus, though a scholar and a master in Israel, failed to
understand the full import of our Lord's words, and in seeming
bewilderment asked: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter
the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" (Verse 4).

With at least equal pertinency it may now be asked: How can a man
who has died without baptism be baptized? Can he enter the second
time into his body of flesh and be immersed in water? The answer is
that the living may be baptized for the dead. No one who accepts as
a reality the Atonement of Jesus Christ in behalf of all humankind
can consistently deny the efficacy of vicarious service, in which one
person officiates in behalf of another, provided of course that the
labor be done by Divine appointment.

In the last chapter of the Old Testament the prophet Malachi describes
a condition of the last days immediately precedent to the second
advent of the Christ: "For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as
an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be
stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of
hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." (Malachi 4:1).

This fateful prediction is followed by the blessed promise, expressed
in the words of Jehovah: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he
shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of
the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a
curse." (Verses 5, 6).

Joseph Smith the modern prophet solemnly affirms that in 1836 Elijah
the prophet of ancient Israel appeared in the Temple that had been
erected by the Latter-day Saints at Kirtland, Ohio, and effected the
fulfilment of Malachi's prediction by this declaration: "Behold, the
time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi,
testifying that he (Elijah) should be sent before the great and
dreadful day of the Lord come, to turn the hearts of the fathers to
the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be
smitten with a curse." (D&C, 110:14-15).

This union of the interests of the departed fathers with those of their
yet living descendants is a necessary preparation for the coming of the
Lord, as affirmed by Joseph Smith: "The earth will be smitten with a
curse, unless there is a welding link of some kind or other, between
the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other, and behold
what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without
them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made
perfect." (D. C. 128:18).

The Latter-day Saints are distinguished as a Temple-building people.
Through direct revelation the Lord has made plain that baptism and
associated ordinances for the dead, as also certain endowments of the
living, are acceptable only when administered in structures specially
reared and consecrated for this sacred service.

In the spirit realm, as in our material world of mortals, the Gospel
of Jesus Christ is being preached; and among both dead and living the
authoritative proclamation is made: Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is
at hand. To be competent to officiate for his dead, a man must first
comply with the laws and ordinances of the Gospel in his own behalf.

There is an element of particular fitness in the fact that the
appointed minister, through whom the vicarious service of the living in
behalf of the dead has been inaugurated in the current dispensation,
is none other than Elijah, who was taken from earth without passing
through the change we call death, and who therefore held a peculiar and
special relationship to both the living and the dead.

True to the commission conferred through Elijah's modern ministry, the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rears Temples to the name
and service of the living God, and in those sacred structures carries
forward the appointed service for the salvation of the uncounted dead
who have passed away in ignorance as to the necessity of compliance
with the laws and ordinances of the Gospel, without which compliance no
man can have place in the Kingdom of God.



-- 19 --

OBEDIENCE IS HEAVEN'S FIRST LAW

Conditions of Citizenship in the Kingdom of God

WE believe that through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be
saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. (Articles
of Faith, 3).

Pope's famous line, "Order is Heaven's first law," has often been
misapplied. Order is a result of compliance with established
requirements; of necessity, therefore, it cannot be first. It is an
effect, not the primary cause. A more thoughtful generalization leads
to the conclusion that obedience is the basal law of Heaven, and that
this law is equally valid and as truly operative in things pertaining
to mortality.

Jesus Christ, through whom the plan of salvation has been made
available to mankind, has prescribed the conditions under which we may
become its beneficiaries--the terms by which citizenship in the Kingdom
of God may be secured.

Among these specified conditions is baptism by immersion for the
remission of sins. The gross materialist, who wilfully refuses to see
or to acknowledge anything beyond the affairs of earth, may ask: How
can water wash away sin? In answer be it said, water cannot remove
the stain of guilt; nevertheless, obedience to the law of baptism as
required by Jesus Christ is truly a means of securing forgiveness.
Obedience, not water, is the cleansing unction.

Have you never read of Naaman, captain of the Syrian hosts, who sought
relief from his leprosy through the ministration of Elisha, the man of
God? Read 2 Kings, chap. 5. The prophet commanded the leper to wash
himself seven times in Jordan, and promised that through obedience
the man would be cleansed. But the haughty Syrian was offended at
the simplicity of the requirement. He had expected some ceremonial
spectacle of power, a display of miracle. But by the counsel of his
servant he went "and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according
to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto
the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." The waters of Jordan
had no special virtues of healing, but obedience effected a cure from
the leprous affliction, which was rightly regarded as at once a bodily
disease and a curse.

And what of the widow, whose sons were to be sold into bondage because
she could not pay her late husband's debt? Read 2 Kings 4:1-7. She came
to Elisha in agony of soul; and the prophet told her to take the one
little pot of oil in her house, and pour from it into as many vessels
as she could borrow. With scrupulous care she complied with every
detail of the instructions given her by the man of God, and the vessels
were filled from the single cruse. Then she came and told the man of
God. And he said, "Go, sell the cil, and pay thy debt, and live thou
and thy children of the rest."

Obedience is a source of power, even as is prayer. When the Jews
marveled at the wisdom of Christ, He told them of a very simple yet
effective way of obtaining, each for himself, knowledge of supreme
worth. "My doctrine is not mine," said He, "but his that sent me. If
any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be
of God, or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:16, 17).

In every-day affairs we comply without question with the requirements
essential to the results we desire. Electricity lights our homes,
propels our vehicles, drives our machinery, transmits our messages,
but only on condition that we obey to the minutest detail the laws by
which that mystic force operates. We may cause the sunlight to record
indelibly the beauties of the landscape, or the features of a friend,
but only through obedience to the laws of light and the numerous
mechanical adjustments incident to the use of the camera. And as we
fully and unreservedly obey, the result is sure.

Why then should it be a thing strange in our eyes that through
obedience to established and eternal law the higher or spiritual
powers should be invoked to our service? The effect is equally sure.
The Christ has given us solemn assurance: "He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved." (Mark 16:16).

In the present age, the unalterable necessity of obedience as a means
of blessing has been reaffirmed through the prophet Joseph Smith:

"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations
of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated; And when we
obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which
it is predicated." (D&C 130:20, 21).

And further: "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye
do not what I say, ye have no promise." (82:10).

There is no element of uncertainty in the plan of salvation, far
less of inconsistency or caprice in the judgment to be rendered on
individual lives, for that would imply injustice. The plan is simple.
Man is in a fallen condition, beset with weaknesses and sin. Means are
provided whereby he may rise, and, through the corridors of death and
the portals of the resurrection, reach the way of eternal progression.
These means are all comprised in obedience to the laws and ordinances
of the Gospel. It is only by compliance with the laws of our community
and nation that we have title to personal liberty and to a share in
the blessings and privileges provided by the government under which
we live. Shall the terms of citizenship in the Kingdom of God be less
definite than in the nations officered by men?

Divine authority for the naturalization of mankind in that eternal
Kingdom has been restored to earth in the current age. The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints calls upon all peoples, irrespective
of race or nationality, to cultivate an abiding faith in God, to
turn from sin in contrite and genuine repentance, to be baptized by
the authority of the Holy Priesthood, and to receive the assured
companionship of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands.

On the high authority of the Holy Scriptures, the direct word of God to
man, be it said: There is no other road to Salvation.



-- 20 --

THE DEVILS BELIEVE AND TREMBLE

Faith Not Mere Belief

WE believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are:
(1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; (3) Baptism by
immersion for the remission of sins; (4) Laying on of hands for the
gift of the Holy Ghost. (Articles of Faith, 4).

Faith in God is the first, the fundamental, the basal principle of the
Gospel; as, indeed, faith, in the more general usage of the term, is
the impelling cause to activity even in ordinary affairs. Faith and
belief are not infrequently confused, and the words are too commonly
regarded as synonymous. An approach to identity of meaning appears in
early English, in consequence of which fact belief is sometimes given
the more definite signification of faith in our versions of the Holy
Scriptures. Belief may be nothing more than a mental assent to any
proposition, principle, or alleged fact; whereas faith implies such
confidence and conviction as shall inspire to action. Belief is by
comparison passive, a mere agreement or tacit acceptance only; faith is
active and positive, and is accompanied by works. Faith is vivified,
vitalized, living belief.

Even the devils believe that Jesus is the Christ, and so fully that
they tremble at the prospect of the fate foreshadowed by that belief
(see James 2:19). Their belief may amount even to certain knowledge,
but they remain devils nevertheless. Consider the man possessed by a
demon in the country of the Gadarenes. When he beheld Jesus afar off
he ran to the Master, and worshiped Him, while the evil spirit by whom
the man was controlled acknowledged the Lord, calling Him "Jesus, thou
Son of the Most High God." (Mark 5; for analogous instances see Mark
1:23-27, and 3:8-11).

Strikingly similar in form, yet vitally different in spirit and effect,
is this testimony of the demons as compared with Peter's confession
of his Lord. To the Savior's question "Whom say ye that I am?" Peter
replied in practically the same words voiced by the unclean spirits:
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matt. 16:15, 16).

Peter's faith had already been tested, and had demonstrated its vital
power. Through faith the Apostle had forsaken much that had been dear,
and had followed his Lord in persecution and suffering. His knowledge
of God as the Eternal Father and of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer may
have been no greater than that of the demons; but while to them that
knowledge was an added cause of condemnation, to him it was the power
of righteous service and of eventual salvation.

In a theological sense faith includes a moving, vital, inspiring
confidence in God, and the acceptance of His will as our law and of
His words as our guide in life. Faith in God is a principle of power,
for by its exercise spiritual forces are made operative. By this power
phenomena that appear to be supernatural, such as we call miracles, are
wrought. Even the Lord Jesus was influenced and in a measure controlled
by the lack of faith or the possession thereof by those who sought
blessings at His hands. We are told that at a certain time and place
Jesus "could there do no mighty work" because of the people's unbelief,
which was so dense that He marveled at it. (Mark 6:5, 6). Repeatedly
did the Lord rebuke and admonish with such reproofs as "O ye of little
faith," "Where is your faith?" and "How is it that ye have no faith?"
In glorious contrast rang out His words of benediction to those whose
faith had made it possible for Him to heal and to save: "Thy faith hath
made thee whole" and "According to your faith be it unto you."

Read the record of the youthful demoniac whose agonized father
brought his son to the Master, pleading pitiably "If thou canst do
any thing, have compassion on us and help us." To this qualified
intercession Jesus replied "If thou canst believe" and added "All
things are possible to him that believeth." (Read Mark 9:14-29). The
faith requisite to the healing was not that of the Healer alone, but
primarily faith on the part of the suppliant.

If through faith Divine interposition may be secured to the
accomplishment of what we call material or physical miracles, and of
this the Scriptures contain copious testimony (read Hebrews, chap.
11), is it consistent to doubt that faith is the appointed agency for
invoking and securing spiritual blessings, even to the attainment of
salvation in the eternal worlds?

As shown in earlier articles, redemption from the power of death is
assured to all through the victory achieved by Jesus Christ; but
salvation is an individual gift, provided for all who shall establish
claim thereto through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the
Gospel. Faith in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ
as the Redeemer and Savior of the race, and in the Holy Ghost, is
essential to the securing of individual salvation. Paul forcefully
declares "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that
cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him." (Heb. 11:6).

The Scriptures abound in assurances of salvation to those who exercise
faith in God. The Savior's teachings are conclusive:

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16).

And again:

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth
on him." (John 3:36).

But who will venture to affirm that passive belief as distinguished
from active faith is here implied? Can a man be said to believe in
Jesus Christ in any effective and genuine sense unless that man shall
strive to do the things that Christ commands? To any such inconsistent
assumption, the Apostle John replies:

"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar,
and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily
is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." (1
John 2:3-5).

In a revelation through Joseph Smith in 1829 the Lord Jesus Christ gave
this instruction and blessed promise:

"Ask the Father in my name, in faith believing that you shall receive,
and you shall have the Holy Ghost, which manifesteth all things which
are expedient unto the children of men." (D&C 18:18).



-- 21 --

THE VOICE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AGAIN HEARD

Repent Ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

THE personal ministry of Jesus Christ in the flesh was directly
heralded by the preaching of John the Baptist, whose voice was that of
one crying in the wilderness: "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is
at hand." The proclamation of the appointed harbinger was vindicated by
the appearance of the Lord Himself, who came and opened the way of the
Kingdom of God to all who would enter therein.

In these modern days that same John, now a resurrected personage, has
again officiated on earth. In him was vested of old the authority
of the Priesthood of Aaron. On the 15th of May, 1829, a heavenly
messenger, who declared himself to be John known as the Baptist,
appeared in light and glory, and, laying his hands upon the heads
of the modern prophet Joseph Smith and a companion in the ministry,
conferred upon them the Aaronic Priesthood, saying:

"Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the
Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels,
and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the
remission of sins." (D&C, Sec. 13).

Thus was fulfilled in part the vision prophecy of the ancient
Revelator, that in the last days an angel would come, "having the
everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth." (See
Rev. 14:6, 7).

Repentance, which stands eternally established as an indispensable
condition of salvation, is today proclaimed anew under the authority
of the restored Priesthood, and the call is to every nation, kindred,
tongue, and people. The second advent of the Christ is near, and but
little time remains to prepare for His coming, which shall be in power
and great glory, to the accompaniment of the resurrection of the
righteous dead, the glorification of the worthy who are still in the
flesh, and the destruction of the wilfully and hopelessly wicked.

Repentance, as the ordained requirement whereby remission of sins may
be attained, consists essentially in a genuine sorrow for sin and
comprises: (1) a personal conviction of guilt; (2) an earnest desire to
secure foregiveness; and (3) a resolute determination to forsake sin
and follow the path of righteous living. The first step in the course
of effective repentance consists in the acknowledgment or confession
of sin before God; the second in the sinner forgiving those who have
sinned against him; and the third in his acceptance of Christ's atoning
sacrifice as shown by a willingness to obey the further requirements
embodied in the Gospel of salvation.

1. Without sincere confession of sin repentance is impossible. The
Apostle John declared the solemn truth:

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is
not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:8,
9).

In this modern age the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ has been heard to
the same effect:

"Verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, forgive sins unto those who
confess their sins before me and ask forgiveness, who have not sinned
unto death."

And further:

"By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins. Behold, he will
confess them and forsake them." (D&C 64:7; and 58:43).

2. The sinner must be willing to grant forgiveness to others if he
would secure that boon to himself. In teaching us how to pray, the
Lord specified the condition on which forgiveness may rationally be
asked: "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." No hope
of forgiveness is justified if in our hearts we are unforgiving,
"For," said the Christ, "if ye forgive men their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matt.
6:14, 15).

Through His revelations to the restored Church in the current age, the
Lord has emphasized this essential element of repentance:

"Wherefore I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another, for
he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses, standeth condemned
before the Lord, for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the
Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to
forgive all men." (D&C 64:9, 10).

3. Contrite repentance will naturally lead the penitent to do all he
can to make amends for past offenses, and to comply with the conditions
on which forgiveness is predicated. And as he learns that baptism at
the hands of one invested with Divine authority is essential, he will
seek such a servant of God, and humbly submit himself to the ordinance
whereby citizenship in the Kingdom of God may be established.

Without repentance salvation is impossible. The Savior followed the
ringing call of His forerunner with the command: "Repent ye and believe
the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). So also taught the Apostles of old, that God
"commandeth all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). And in the
present dispensation the word of God has come through the Prophet
Joseph Smith:

"And we know that all men must repent and believe on the name of Jesus
Christ, and worship the Father in his name, and endure in faith on his
name to the end, or they cannot be saved in the kingdom of God." (D&C
20:29).

Against the awful danger of procrastination, whereby the ability to
repent may be forfeited, the Book of Mormon solemnly warns:

"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God;
yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their
labors, . . . For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your
repentance, even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the
spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit
of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the
devil hath all power over you." (Book of Mormon, Alma 34:32, 35).



-- 22 --

ARISE AND WASH AWAY THY SINS

The Only Way

WE believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are:
(1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; (3) Baptism by
immersion for the remission of sins; (4) Laying on of hands for the
gift of the Holy Ghost. (Articles of Faith, 4).

"Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Such was the eager, anguished,
almost despairing cry of the humbled multitude who, at the first
Pentecost following the crucifixion of Christ, were brought to a
realization of their awful guilt through the inspired utterances of
Peter, the presiding Apostle.

What shall we do? What can we do? Is hope yet open to us? This is the
wail of contritely penitent souls, everywhere, always. When convicted
of sin at the bar of his own conscience through genuine repentance,
when at last able to see himself in all the repulsive pollution of his
transgression, the self-accusing sinner yearns with fervid purpose
to make all possible reparation and is zealous to learn and obey the
conditions of forgiveness, if such there be.

To every soul thus brought into the depths through the benign though
afflicting influences of repentance, to all who thus appeal for mercy
and rescue, the answer is direct and prompt:

"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost." (See Acts 2:37-39).

The promise of remission is as wide as the domain of sin; for,
excepting those (and be it said to our comfort that they are few) who
sink so far into the quagmire of iniquity as to be numbered among the
"sons of perdition," to whom effective repentance is impossible, all
may be saved by compliance with the requirements set forth by the
Author of the plan of salvation. The need of forgiveness is likewise
universal; "for there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good,
and sinneth not" (Eccles. 7:20).

Is it not reasonable, and wholly in keeping with the ordinary ways of
men in their mutual dealings, that some substantial evidence shall be
demanded to attest the genuineness of the repentance we voice in words?
Is it enough that the debtor shall merely acknowledge his obligation
and express regret that he has not heretofore been able to meet it?
He must do something more, or he remains forever in debt. The seal by
which repentance is validated is Baptism in water for the remission
of sins; for by this is the blood of Jesus Christ made effective to
cleanse from sin. (See 1 John 1:7).

The voice in the wilderness heralding the advent of the Lord, the
proclamation that aroused Jerusalem and reverberated throughout Judea
and Galilee, was "the baptism of repentance for the remission of
sins." (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3). The cleansing ordinance was not to be
administered indiscriminately, however; it was reserved for those who
had brought forth "fruits meet for repentance," those whose profession
of penitence was a true index to their contrite state.

Saul of Tarsus when rebuked for his ill-directed zeal in persecuting
the Lord's own, exclaimed in agony: "What shall I do, Lord?" By the
mouth of devout Ananias came the answer: "Arise, and be baptized and
wash away thy sins." (See Acts 22). And Saul, thereafter known as Paul,
a preacher of righteousness and an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ,
taught the saving doctrine that by baptism in water comes regeneration
from sin.

Pastors and prophets who ministered to the ancient fold of Christ
on the American continent led the people in the same path, that of
repentance and baptism by water, the only way by which remission of
sins could then or can ever be secured. Read for yourselves in the Book
of Mormon, which is verily the Scripture of the Western Continent:

"For the gate by which ye should enter, is repentance, and baptism by
water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire, and by the
Holy Ghost." (2 Nephi 31:17).

"Shew unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins, and
enter into a covenant with Him to keep His commandments, and witness it
unto Him this day, by going into the waters of baptism." (Alma 7:15).

Hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ through the prophet Mormon:

"Turn, all ye Gentiles from your wicked ways, and repent of your evil
doings, of your lyings and deceivings, and of your whoredoms, and of
your secret abominations, and your idolatries, and of your murders, and
your priestcrafts, and your envyings, and your strifes, and from all
your wickedness and abominations, and come unto me, and be baptized in
my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins, and be filled
with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be numbered with my people, who are of
the house of Israel." (3 Nephi 30:2).

And further:

"The first fruits of repentance is baptism; and baptism cometh by
faith, unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the
commandments bringeth remission of sins." (Moroni 8:25).

To His commissioned servants in the current age, the bearers of the
Holy Priesthood again restored to earth, the Lord has given commandment
that they proclaim anew to the world the same unchangeable truth, that
only through baptism is remission of sins promised. Thus we read:

"But thou shalt declare repentance and faith on the Savior and
remission of sins by baptism and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost."
(D&C 19:31).

Such is the immutable law of God throughout the ages. There is no other
way provided on earth or in heaven by which the merits of the Atonement
of Jesus Christ may bring salvation to mankind.



-- 23 --

ARE BABES TO BE DAMNED?

A Horrible Misconception

THAT baptism is essential to individual salvation is a tenet of most
Christian churches. But baptism is enjoined as an indispensable
requisite to remission of sins, and as the one and only gate of
admission to the Church of Jesus Christ or the Kingdom of God. Faith
in God and genuine repentance are prerequisites to effective baptism.
In all consistency and justice, therefore, baptism can be required
of those only who are capable of exercising faith and of rendering
repentance.

The undeveloped mind of a babe is incapable of conceiving sin, of
experiencing faith, or of comprehending repentance. Why then should
babes be baptized?

We search in vain for scriptural authority or sanction of the practise
of infant baptism. Christ took little children into His arms and
blessed them, saying to those who would have kept the innocents from
Him "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for
of such is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 19:14).

But He did not baptize them; and, as an early writer has tersely
remarked: "From the action of Christ's blessing infants, to infer they
are to be baptized, proves nothing so much as that there is a want
of better argument; for the conclusion would with more probability
be derived thus: Christ blessed infants, and so dismissed them, but
baptized them not; therefore infants are not to be baptized."

The unscriptural and repellent dogma of inherent degeneracy and the
contaminating effect of original sin, by which every child is born
vile in the sight and judgment of God, long cast its dark shadow over
the minds of men. From this conception sprang the practise of infant
baptism and the perverted doctrine of assured damnation for all babes
who die unbaptized. Even the most radical of churches has modified its
teaching on this subject, and today permits its members to believe that
children who die without baptism pass to a state of partial happiness
and content, though forever denied the beatific vision of God.

It is conceded, of course, that no dictum, dogma, or doctrine of men
can determine the fate of souls, infant or adult, in the hereafter;
nevertheless, theologic precepts have direct effect upon the thoughts
and lives of mankind. It is cheering to know that practically all
Christendom today repudiates the frightful heresy of the eternal
condemnation of babes who die without baptism.

Hear now the word of "Mormonism" on the matter and note the time of its
enunciation. In 1830 the Book of Mormon was first published. Therein we
read, in an epistle of the ancient prophet Mormon to his son Moroni:

"Listen to the words of Christ, your Redeemer, your Lord and your
God. Behold, I came into the world not to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance: the whole need no physician, but they that are
sick; wherefore little children are whole, for they are not capable
of committing sin; wherefore the curse of Adam is taken from them in
me, that it hath no power over them; and the law of circumcision is
done away in me. And after this manner did the Holy Ghost manifest
the word of God unto me; wherefore, my beloved son, I know that it is
solemn mockery before God, that ye should baptize little children.
Behold I say unto you, that this thing shall ye teach, repentance and
baptism unto those who are accountable and capable of committing sin;
yea, teach parents that they must repent and be baptized, and humble
themselves as their little children, and they shall all be saved with
their little children. And their little children need no repentance,
neither baptism. Behold, baptism is unto repentance to the fulfilling
the commandments unto the remission of sins. But little children are
alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world. . . . Little
children cannot repent; wherefore it is awful wickedness to deny the
pure mercies of God unto them, for they are all alive in him because
of his mercy. And he that saith, that little children need baptism,
denieth the mercies of Christ, and setteth at nought the atonement of
him and the power of his redemption." (Book of Mormon, Moroni 8:8-20).

So proclaims the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the
world today. Faith in God, repentance of sin, baptism by water and
of the Spirit, are required of every soul that comes to years of
accountability and powers of comprehension; but without faith and
repentance, of which only understanding minds are capable, baptism is
but a perversion of the Gospel ordinance.

The Scriptures relating to baptism in all ages and of all peoples are
in harmony as to the conditions essential to the proper reception of
the saving rite. In a revelation on Church government given through
Joseph Smith the Prophet, in April, 1830, the Lord Jesus Christ thus
defined the status of acceptable candidates for baptism:

"All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized
and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness
before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins,
and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a
determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their
works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the
remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into His Church."
(D&C 20:37).

These conditions exclude all who have not reached the age and capacity
of discretion and understanding; and by specific commandment the Lord
has forbidden the Church to administer baptism to others:

"No one can be received into the Church of Christ, unless he has
arrived unto the years of accountability before God, and is capable of
repentance." (Verse 71).

By revelation the Lord has designated eight years as the age at which
children may be baptized into the Church. At an earlier age, however,
children are to be brought to the elders of the Church, and be blessed
by the laying on of hands in the name of Jesus Christ, after the
pattern set by the Master in the course of His personal ministry.



-- 24 --

THE WATERY GRAVE

And the New Birth

WHILE our Lord tarried at Jerusalem following the first Passover
festival after the beginning of His public ministry, there came unto
Him by night a certain ruler of the Jews. The visitor was of the
Pharisees and a member of the great Sanhedrin, or supreme council of
the nation. There is significance in the circumstance that Nicodemus
sought Christ by night. Read John 3:1-21. We must credit the man with a
genuine desire to learn of the doctrines taught by the newly recognized
Prophet from Galilee, whose fame was already widely spread; but it
appears that pride of station or fear of criticism led him to seek an
interview under cover of darkness and privacy.

Speaking for himself and probably for his official associates,
Nicodemus thus addressed the Savior: "Rabbi, we know that thou art
a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou
doest, except God be with him."

Without waiting for specific questions, "Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God."

The learned Jew expressed surprise, if not incredulity. "How can a man
be born when he is old?" he asked; "can he enter the second time into
his mother's womb, and be born?" Even after further explanation of
the plan provided for the salvation of mankind, the eminent Rabbi and
Sanhedrist exclaimed: "How can these things be?" Our Lord's reply must
have been humbling if not humiliating to the man: "Art thou a master of
Israel, and knowest not these things?" The conditions of citizenship
in the kingdom of God are so simple that even the unscholarly may
understand and obey.

Beyond question the second birth specified to Nicodemus as so
thoroughly indispensable that without it no man can ever see the
kingdom of God is baptism by water, and by the ministry of the Spirit
or the Holy Ghost.

The efficacy of baptism as a means of securing remission of sins and
of attaining entrance to the Church of Jesus Christ, which is the
kingdom of God, lies in the fact that this is the ordinance prescribed
by Divine authority, whereby the Savior's atoning sacrifice may be
made operative and effective. Salvation is not to be had for the mere
asking; it is nevertheless made accessible to all through faith and
prescribed works.

Simple as is the outward or physical process, there is profound
symbolism in the baptismal rite. As seen, Christ compared it to
a birth, an entrance into a new world or state of being. No such
symbolism obtains in baptism except by complete immersion in water and
a coming forth therefrom.

Water baptism has also been very impressively compared to burial and
resurrection; and the comparison is meaningless except the baptism be
by immersion followed by a rising from the watery grave. Paul evidently
so knew, as his words attest: "Know ye not that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we
are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection." (Rom. 6:3-5; see also Col. 2:12).

Christ Himself was baptized "to fulfill all righteousness," and His
baptism at the hands of John was by immersion, as is evidenced by the
fact that He "went up straightway out of the water."

Have you read the story of the contrite Ethiopian eunuch, treasurer
to Queen Candace? After listening to Philip's exposition of the
Scriptures, as the two rode together, the Ethiopian desired baptism,
and, Philip consenting, "he commanded the chariot to stand still: and
they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and
he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the
Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more;
and he went on his way rejoicing." (See Acts 8:26-39). Did Philip,
who was directed in this ministry by the angel of the Lord, err in
administering baptism by immersion?

Theologians are generally agreed that for centuries after the time
of Christ immersion was the only mode of authorized baptism; and
philologists testify that the very word "baptize" is derived from the
Greek verb meaning to immerse or bury. The Holy Scriptures prescribe
baptism by immersion as essential to salvation, and none other form is
validated by the Word of God.

To the Nephites on the Western Continent the resurrected Lord appeared
soon after His ascension from the Mount of Olives. He gave the people
explicit instructions as to the way in which the essential ordinance of
baptism by immersion was to be administered.

Baptism as prescribed by revelation in the present age is after the
same pattern; and every baptism administered in the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints is by immersion. (See D&C 20:72-74).



-- 25 --

THE BAPTISM OF FIRE

Power of the Spirit

WE believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel
are:--(1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; (3) Baptism
by immersion for the remission of sins; (4) Laying on of hands for the
gift of the Holy Ghost. (Articles of Faith 4).

John the Baptist proclaimed the necessity of repentance and of baptism
by water, which latter he administered to all who came in contrition
seeking admission to the kingdom of God. With equal fervency, this
voice crying in the wilderness foretold a second or higher baptism,
which, however, John was not authorized to give. This he characterized
as the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, ordained to follow his
administration, and to be given by that Mightier One, whose preeminence
John delighted to proclaim. This was the Baptist's testimony:

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh
after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." (Matt. 3:11).

That the Mightier One referred to was none other than Jesus the Christ
is thus set forth in the words of John: "Behold the Lamb of God. . . .
This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred
before me: for he was before me. . . . And I knew him not: but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou
shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he
which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." (John 1:29-33).

In His incisive instructions to Nicodemus respecting the works
essential to salvation, the Savior did not stop with the specification
of the watery birth. Baptism by immersion in water, though administered
by one invested with the power of the Holy Priesthood, is incomplete
without the quickening effect of the Spirit. "Born of water and of
the Spirit" is the indispensable status of every man who shall gain
admission to the kingdom of God.

While yet in the flesh our Lord specifically and repeatedly assured the
Apostles that after His departure the Comforter or the Spirit of Truth
would be sent unto them; and the scriptural context plainly shows that
these expressive appellations have reference solely to the Holy Ghost.
Amidst the solemnities of His ascension, the Lord reiterated these
assurances of a spiritual baptism, saying: "For John truly baptized
with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days
hence." (Acts 1:5).

A rich fulfilment was realized at the succeeding Pentecost, when the
assembled Apostles were endowed with unprecedented power from heaven,
being filled with the influence of the Holy Ghost so that they spake
in tongues other than their own as the Spirit gave them utterance.
An outward manifestation of this Divine investiture was seen in the
tongues of flame which rested upon them severally. The Lord's promise,
so miraculously fulfilled upon themselves, was repeated by the
Apostles to those who sought their instruction. Conditioned upon their
repentance and baptism in water, Peter assured the penitent Jews that
they should "receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2:38).

That the bestowal of the Holy Ghost is an ordinance requiring higher
authority than that by which water baptism may be performed is
evidenced by Scripture. Philip--not the Apostle Philip, but presumably
one of the seven men who had been set apart for a lesser ministry (Acts
6:3-6)--preached to the Samaritans and baptized many. Plainly Philip
was empowered to administer water baptism; and it is equally clear that
an authority greater than his was requisite for the higher baptism of
the Spirit or the conferring of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of
hands. To this the Scriptures testify:

"Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had
received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when
they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy
Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on
them, and they received the Holy Ghost." (Acts 8:14-17).

Very illuminating is the instance of Paul's ministry unto certain
devout Ephesians (Acts 19:1-7) who professed to have been baptized
"unto John's baptism," but who were plainly uninstructed as to the
necessity of the baptism of the Spirit. It is probable that these men
had submitted to immersion by unauthorized hands; and therefore Paul
caused that they be baptized "in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when
Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and
they spake with tongues, and prophesied."

To the Twelve Disciples who were ordained by the resurrected Lord among
the Nephites on the American continent, Christ gave special power, so
that all baptized believers upon whom they would lay their hands should
receive the Holy Ghost; and thus is the assurance recorded:

"Yea, blessed are they who shall believe in your words, and come down
into the depths of humility and be baptized, for they shall be visited
with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a remission of
their sins." (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 12:2; see also Moroni chap. 2.)

And in this modern day, the authority of both the Lesser or Aaronic
Priesthood, which is requisite to water baptism, and of the Higher or
Melchizedek Priesthood, without which the gift of the Holy Ghost cannot
be authoritatively bestowed, has been restored to earth, through the
Prophet Joseph Smith. The Elders of the Church today are commanded to
preach the Gospel, to baptize the penitent, "And to confirm those who
are baptized into the church, by the laying on of hands for the baptism
of fire and the Holy Ghost, according to the Scriptures." (D&C 20:41).



-- 26 --

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN!

Authority of the Holy Priesthood Again Operative on Earth

WE believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the
laying on of hands, by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel
and administer in the ordinances thereof. (Articles of Faith No. 5).

We have seen that certain ordinances, prescribed by the Lord Jesus
Christ, are indispensable to salvation. Without baptism by water and
the conferment of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands no man can
enter the kingdom of God, for so the Lord hath affirmed and so the
Scriptures attest.

The outward form, mode, or operation in each of these sacred and
far-reaching rites is notably simple. So far as the physical procedure
is concerned, any man of ordinary ability may learn to perform the
ceremony, and that with a few minutes' oral instruction or reading. The
same may be said of many ordinances prescribed in human institutions.
One may readily commit to memory and learn to speak with due
impressiveness the words by which a college degree is conferred upon
the successful student, the formula by which man and woman are united
in the bonds of wedlock, or the judicial pronouncement by which one
prisoner is restored to liberty and another condemned.

But, as everybody knows, to make the utterance effective he who speaks
must be invested with specific authority, without which his presumption
to officiate would be a punishable offense under the secular law. Are
consistency and reason less to be considered in matters of Divine
administration than in the affairs of mortals?

Healing ministry to the afflicted in the name of Jesus Christ is one of
the gifts of the Spirit implanted in the Church. The Apostles of old
so administered, and with such effect that disease was stayed and evil
spirits were rebuked. Certain vagabond Jews once attempted to imitate
Paul in his authoritative functions, and among them were the seven sons
of Sceva chief of the priests. (See Acts 19:11-18). Unto a suffering
demoniac these evil and presumptuous men, void of authority and power,
undertook to minister, solemnly pronouncing the words: "We adjure you
by Jesus," and then, as if to put beyond question the Name in which
they blasphemously essayed to speak, added "whom Paul preacheth."
But the demon in the man laughed them to scorn, and cried aloud in
derision: "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?"

The Apostles who were with the Lord in the flesh had been ordained by
Him to the Holy Priesthood; and Paul who was later called into the
ministry was ordained by the laying on of hands of those in authority.
(Acts 13:2-4). Even the evil spirits acknowledged their authority, as
earlier the demons had acclaimed the Christ "Jesus, thou Son of the
Most High God." (See Mark 5:7). But for the vagabond pretenders there
was contempt and humiliation.

And what of the impressive lesson taught by the experience of Simon the
sorcerer? (See Acts 8:18-24). He marveled at the power demonstrated
through the Apostles; for to the baptized believers upon whom they
laid their hands came the Holy Ghost with manifestations of spiritual
endowment. His mind, heart and motive darkened by sin, Simon sought to
buy with money the power that only the call of God could impart: "But
Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast
thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast
neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the
sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if
perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive
that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity."
(Acts 8:20-23).

Far surpassing anything and all that man can bestow is the authority
to preach the Word of God and administer Divine ordinances through the
investiture of the Holy Priesthood. While Israel lived under the Law,
bereft of the fulness of spiritual light such as the Gospel alone can
give, Jehovah repeatedly manifested His righteous jealousy or zeal
in behalf of His appointed servants and against all who pretended to
arrogate authority unto themselves. Read the story of wicked Korah
and his associates in their attempt to minister in the priest's
office (Numbers 16); consider the rejection of Saul, king of Israel,
who offended by undertaking to discharge the functions of the Lord's
prophet (1 Sam. 13:8-14). And think of Uzziah, king of Judah, who died
an outcast and a leper, through the visitation of punishment for having
presumed to officiate without priestly ordination. (2 Chron. 26).

In the establishment of His Church among the ancient Americans, the
Lord was specific in conferring upon certain men the authority to
baptize, to lay on hands for the giving of the Holy Ghost, administer
the sacrament of bread and wine, and otherwise to officiate in the
ordinances pertaining to the Holy Priesthood. By personal ordination
the Lord invested His chosen representatives to minister in His Name.
(Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11:21, 22; 12: 1, 2; 18:5).

So also, in the present age, authority to minister in the saving
ordinances of the Gospel must be given of God, not assumed by man. The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims to the world
that the Holy Priesthood, which is the appointment and authority to
officiate in the name of God, has been restored to the earth in modern
days, through direct dispensation from the heavens by angelic ministry
to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The imperative urgency of the call is thus
set forth in current revelation:

"And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of
my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days. And they shall
go forth and none shall stay them, for I the Lord have commanded
them. . . . Wherefore the voice of the Lord is unto the ends of the
earth, that all that will hear may hear: Prepare ye, prepare ye for
that which is to come, for the Lord is nigh. . . . For I the Lord
cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. Nevertheless,
he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be
forgiven." (D&C 1).



-- 27 --

FOR TIME ONLY OR FOR ETERNITY

Human Institutions and Divine Authority.

ORGANIZATION is essential to human advancement. The Divine affirmation
that it is not good for man to be alone may be applied not only to the
union of the sexes in honorable marriage, upon which the perpetuity of
the race depends, but also to the association of humankind in community
life, without which cooperation is impossible and the achievements of
united purpose would be unknown.

It is natural and necessary that men shall establish and maintain
institutions for community betterment. The constitution of every
liberal government recognizes the right of individuals to associate
themselves in any organization having worthy purpose, in harmony with
the spirit of law and order, and not interfering with the rights and
privileges of non-members.

Thus, men may institute societies, associations, and clubs, guilds,
fraternities, and orders. They may designate their organization as a
church if they choose, and may enact rules prescribing conditions of
admission, and providing for the administration of the institution's
affairs. They may go so far as to say that no man shall be admitted to
the church thus created except he be baptized by immersion in water
by one of the officials, and that the seal of membership shall be the
pronouncing of a formula accompanied by the laying on of hands.

But who of us would hazard his reputation as a rational being by
asserting or even believing that such baptism, administered by an
authority created by man, can be of effect in assuring remission of
sins, or that it shall be recognized as efficacious by the powers of
Heaven?

Churches, societies, or other associations, established on purely human
initiative are institutions of men; they can never be aught else. It is
in line with consistency that such organizations bear the names of men,
or that they be known by some appellation expressive of their origin,
their constitution, their peculiarities of government, their location,
or some other distinguishing feature. Could it be counted less than
sacrilege to attach the name of Deity to a church called into being in
the manner we have assumed?

The Church of the apostolic epoch was the organization that Christ had
established. He very expressively called it My Church (Matt. 16:18);
and after His departure, every ordinance therein was administered in
the name of Jesus Christ. By Divine assurance those ordinances were
of effect, not only on earth but in Heaven, not alone for time, but
for eternity. Of man-made institutions, of artificial growths though
bearing the titles of churchly cults, the Lord emphatically declared:
"Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be
rooted up." (Matt. 15:13).

In the course of His ministrations on the Western Continent, Jesus
Christ established His Church, and thus answered certain inquiries as
to the name by which that Church should be called:

"Whatsoever ye shall do, ye shall do it in my name; therefore ye shall
call the church in my name; and ye shall call upon the Father in my
name, that he will bless the church for my sake. And how be it my
church, save it be called in my name? For if a church be called in
Moses' name, then it be Moses' church; or if it be called in the name
of a man, then it be the church of a man; but if it be called in my
name, then it is my church, if it so be that they are built upon my
gospel." (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 27:7, 8.)

The acts of a public official, whether of local or national status,
are effective only within the limits of the jurisdiction he
represents. City ordinances can be enforced within the boundaries of
the municipality, but not beyond. State legislatures are powerless
to enact laws for interstate regulation. Congress is limited in
specific jurisdiction to the national domain. Yet, in the face of
these fundamental facts, there are men who assume that it is within
their province to legislate in spiritual affairs, and to alter, annul,
or supersede by their own enactments, the laws established by Divine
authority relating to membership in the Kingdom of God.

In the current age the Lord has established His Church upon the
earth, and has made plain the portentous fact that while honorable
obligations, agreements, and contracts among men may be valid under
human laws, He is in no way bound by such exercise of mortal agency
as conditioning the future of the soul after death. Ponder these
declarations of Jesus Christ, given to His Church in 1843:

"All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows,
performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not
made, and entered into, and sealed, by the Holy Spirit of promise, of
him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity, . . ..
are of no efficacy, virtue or force, in and after the resurrection
from the dead; for all contracts that are not made unto this end,
have an end when men are dead. . . ..And everything that is in the
world, whether it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities,
or powers, or things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by
me, or by my word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not
remain after men are dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith
the Lord your God." (D&C 132:5-13).



-- 28 --

APOSTLES AND PROPHETS NECESSARY

The Primitive Church and the Church of Latter Days

WE believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive
Church, viz.: apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.
(Articles of Faith, No. 6).

Most people who profess belief in Christianity accept as a scriptural
fact the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ, through the
Lord's personal ministry, in the early days of what we call the
Christian Era, the period that has been expressively designated the
meridian of time. During the many centuries between the days of Moses
and the advent of Christ in the flesh, Israel had lived under the Law,
between which and the Gospel a clear distinction is drawn in Scripture.
Paul's explicit segregation of the two is cogent, and ample for
illustration:

"But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the
faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified
by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a
schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus." (Gal. 3:23-26).

The Law of Moses, the schoolmaster's administration which was
constituted for the discipline of a people unprepared to receive the
higher tutoring of the Gospel, was fulfilled and therefore abrogated
as a formal and obligatory system through the earthly ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ. While this fulfilment is evidenced by the whole
tenor of New Testament Scripture, a most direct and concise declaration
may be quoted with profit from the Nephite Scriptures, recorded by
holy men who officiated under Divine commission on the American
continent throughout a period of approximately six centuries before and
four centuries after the birth of Christ. The prophet Nephi who was
living at the time of our Lord's death, resurrection, and ascension,
incorporates in his record the words of the Resurrected Savior as
follows:

"Behold I say unto you, that the law is fulfilled that was given unto
Moses. Behold, I am he that gave the law, and I am he who covenanted
with my people Israel: therefore, the law in me is fulfilled, for I
have come to fulfil the law; therefore it hath an end. Behold, I do
not destroy the prophets, for as many as have not been fulfilled in
me, verily I say unto you, shall all be fulfilled." (Book of Mormon, 3
Nephi 15:4-6).

A studious reading of the four Gospels demonstrates that while our
Lord recognized the Jewish hierarchy as administrators of an existing
system of government, and complied with all lawful requirements thereof
as such applied to Himself, He proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom in
place of the Mosaic Law, and ordained men to a higher Priesthood than
that of Aaron under which the priests of the Jews claimed to operate.
He commissioned the Twelve Apostles (Matt. 10:1; Mark 3:14; Luke 6:13),
and afterward the Seventy (Luke 10:1). Unto the eleven Apostles who
had remained faithful the Lord gave the parting instruction, shortly
before His ascension: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel
to every creature." The Apostles labored with devoted energy, "And they
went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and
confirming the word with signs following." (See Mark 16:15-20).

The Apostles clearly understood that though the Master had passed from
earth He had left with them authority and commandment to build up the
Church as an established organization. One of their early official
acts was to fill the vacancy in their own body, which had been created
by the apostasy and death of Judas Iscariot. It is evident that they
considered the apostolic body to comprise twelve members and that the
needs of the Church required the organization to be made complete. By
official action Matthias was added to the eleven. (See Acts 1:21-26).

Under the administration of the Apostles and others who officiated
by their direction in positions of lesser authority, the Church of
Jesus Christ grew in membership and influence. For ten years or more
following our Lord's ascension, Jerusalem was the headquarters of
the Church, but branches were established in the outlying provinces,
and these branches, or local "churches," were officered by bishops,
deacons, and other ministers, who were chosen and ordained by apostolic
authority.

We find, operating in their sacred callings in the Primitive Church,
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders, bishops,
priests and deacons. The purpose of these several offices is declared
to be "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ." (Eph. 4:12).

Every office so established is necessary to the development of
the Church, which has been aptly compared to a perfect body with
its several members, each adapted to particular function and all
coordinated for the common good. In an organization planned and
established through Divine wisdom, there are neither superfluities
nor parts wanting. Eye, ear, hand, and foot, each is essential to the
symmetry and physical perfection of the body; in the Church no one in
authority can rightly say to his fellow: "I have no need of thee." (See
1 Cor. 12:12-21).

The Primitive Church was of comparatively short duration. The world
fell into spiritual darkness, and a restoration of power and commission
from the Heavens became necessary to the reestablishment of the Church
with its ancient blessings and privileges. The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints proclaims the imperative need of "the same
organization that existed in the Primitive Church," and solemnly avers
that through the ministration of heavenly beings the Church of Jesus
Christ is restored to earth, for the salvation of mankind both living
and dead.



-- 29 --

WHEN DARKNESS COVERED THE EARTH

The Long Night of Apostasy

WE accept as fact the belief common to Christendom that the Church
of Christ was established under our Lord's personal direction and
that during the early period of apostolic administration the Church
was blessed with rapid growth and marvelous development. A question
of profound importance confronts us: Has the Church of Jesus Christ
maintained an organized existence upon the earth from the apostolic age
to the present?

We affirm that with the passing of the apostolic period the Church
drifted into a condition of apostasy, whereby succession in the Holy
Priesthood was broken; and that the Church as an earthly organization
operating under Divine direction and having authority to officiate in
spiritual ordinances ceased to exist among men. [1]

We affirm that this great apostasy, whereby the world was enshrouded
in spiritual darkness, was foretold by the Savior Himself while He
lived as a Man among men, and by His prophets both before and after the
period of His life in mortality.

The apostolic ministry continued in the Primitive Church for about
sixty years after the death of Christ, or nearly to the end of the
first century of the Christian Era. For some time thereafter the Church
existed as a unified body, officered by men duly invested by ordination
in the Holy Priesthood, though, even during the lifetime of some of the
Apostles, the leaven of apostasy and disintegration had been working.
Indeed, hardly had the Gospel seed been sown before the enemy of all
righteousness had started assiduously to sow tares in the field; and
so intimate was the growth of the two that any forcible attempt to
extirpate the tares would have imperiled the wheat. The evidences
of spiritual decline were observed with anguish by the Apostles
who, however, recognized the fulfilment of earlier prophecy in the
declension, and added their own inspired testimony to the effect that
even a greater falling away was imminent.

The apostasy progressed rapidly, in consequence of a cooperation
of disrupting forces without and within the Church. The dreadful
persecution to which the early Christians were subjected drove great
numbers of Christians to renounce their allegiance to Christianity,
thus causing a widespread apostasy from the Church. But far more
destructive was the contagion of evil that spread within the body,
manifesting its effects mainly in the following developments:

(1) The corrupting of the simple principles of the Gospel of Christ by
admixture with the so-called philosophical systems of the times.

(2) Unauthorized additions to the rites of the Church, and the
introduction of vital changes in essential ordinances.

(3) Unauthorized changes in Church organization and government.

The result of the degeneracy so produced was to bring about an actual
apostasy of the entire Church.

The Apostasy Predicted

Isaiah beheld in vision the condition of mankind during the darkness
of the spiritual night; and he pictures the earth as languishing in
desolation: "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof;
because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken
the everlasting covenant." (Isa. 24:1-6).

That the general transgression meant something more than a violation of
Mosaic statutes is evident from the fact that nowhere in Scripture is
the Law of Moses called an "everlasting covenant," but to the contrary,
the covenant of the Gospel is clearly differentiated from the Law.

The prophet Amos foresaw the time of famine and thirst, the day of
futile search for the Word of God. "Behold, the days come, saith the
Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread,
nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they
shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they
shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find
it." (Amos 8:11-12).

Christ specifically warned the disciples against the impending
departure from the truth: "Take heed that no man deceive you" said He,
"For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive
many." (Matt. 24:4, 5). And further: "Then if any man shall say unto
you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall
arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and
wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the
very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say
unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in
the secret chambers; believe it not." (Verses 23-26).

The Apostles bore warning testimony to the same awful certainty. Paul
admonished the elders at Ephesus to be on their guard against the
wolves that would invade the fold, and against false teachers who would
assert themselves "speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after them." (See Acts 20:28-30). The same Apostle thus wrote to
Timothy: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits,
and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their
conscience seared with a hot iron." (1 Tim. 4:1, 2; see also 2 Tim.
4:1-4; and 2 Thess. 2:3, 4).

Peter prophesied, in language so plain that all may comprehend, of the
heresies that would be preached as doctrine: "But there were false
prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying
the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way
of truth shall be evil spoken of." (2 Peter 2:1, 2).

John the Revelator expressly predicted the restoration of the Gospel
(Rev. 14:6, 7); and such restoration would be impossible had not the
Gospel been taken from the earth. Book of Mormon Scriptures foretold in
plainness the great falling away and the subsequent restoration of the
Gospel of Christ. (See 1 Nephi 13: 5-9; 3 Nephi 16:7).

The Apostasy Affirmed

The apostate condition of Christendom has been recognized and affirmed
by high ecclesiastical authority. Let a single citation suffice. The
Church of England thus proclaims the fact of degeneracy, as set forth
in her "Homily against Peril of Idolatry," published about the middle
of the sixteenth century and retained to this day as an official
declaration:

"So that laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, sects,
and degrees of men, women, and children of whole Christendom--an
horrible and most dreadful thing to think--have been at once drowned in
abominable idolatry; of all other vices most detested of God, and most
damnable to man; and that by the space of eight hundred years and more."

By revelation through Joseph Smith the prophet the Lord thus confirmed
the predictions of His ancient servants with respect to the apostasy
of mankind: "For they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have
broken mine everlasting covenant. They seek not the Lord to establish
his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the
image of his own God, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and
whose substance is that of an idol." (D&C 1:15, 16).

The universal apostasy has been succeeded by the restoration of the
Gospel, of which blessed truth the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints bears testimony to the world.

Footnotes

1. See the author's "The Great Apostasy," 170 pp., _The Deseret News_,
Salt Lake City, Utah.



-- 30 --

THE MORNING BREAKS, THE SHADOWS FLEE

Light of the Gospel Again Shines

WE believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive
Church, viz.: apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.
(Articles of Faith, No. 6).

As one of the signs whereby men may know when the Lord's coming is
near, Christ specified this feature of the latter times: "And this
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matt. 24:14). As this
follows in immediate sequence to our Lord's prediction of the general
apostasy, incident to which false prophets would arise, iniquity
abound, and love for the truth wax cold, an actual restoration of the
Gospel had to occur, or the Savior's words recorded in the 24th chapter
of Matthew would be inconsistent and their fulfilment impossible.

The Revelator John was shown the scenes of the days immediately before
the latter-day advent of the Christ. In recording the vision as then
already past he wrote:

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the
everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud
voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is
come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the
fountains of waters." (Rev. 14:6, 7).

If an angel was to come to earth, bringing the Gospel, the fact is
plain that the Gospel could not be at that time upon the earth. The
Gospel, which the angel would bring, was to be preached "to every
nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people"; and this in strict and
logical consistency with the Lord's personal prophecy quoted above,
that one of the distinguishing signs of the last days was that the
Gospel of the kingdom, "this Gospel," that is to say, the Gospel that
He had proclaimed, would be "preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations."

But, many have asked, had we not the Gospel? The Holy Bible, which
is the scriptural repository of the Gospel record has been among men
from the time of its earliest compilation; why then the necessity of a
restoration? Yes, we had the Bible; but the Gospel is something other
and greater than a book.

The Holy Scriptures, invaluable and sacred though they be, profess
to be only the letter of the Gospel. Is it reasonable to assume that
the mere possession of a Bible, or even a perfect memorization of its
contents, could give to man the authority to administer the ordinances
prescribed therein? It is quite as plausible to say that if one owns a
copy of the statutes of his state or nation and learns therefrom the
duties of sheriff, judge, governor or president, the knowledge thus
acquired would be authority for him to administer in the respective
offices. Statutes are not self-operative.

The Holy Scriptures define and prescribe certain administrative
ordinances, such as water baptism and the laying on of hands for the
bestowal of the Holy Ghost, which ordinances, unless the Lord Christ
spoke fable and falsehood, are indispensable to individual salvation.
But the right and authority to administer those essential and saving
ordinances cannot be arrogated to one's self by ever so intensive a
study of the scriptural record.

The angel seen by the Revelator, in vision of the then distant future,
was to bring to earth not the bare record and letter of requirement as
to baptism and other rites, for this the world already would have, in
part at least; but he was to restore to earth the Divine commission,
the actual appointment and authority to officiate in those sacred and
saving ordinances, in short the power of the Holy Priesthood, which the
world would not at that time possess.

We affirm that on the 15th of May, 1829, a heavenly messenger appeared
on the earth in light and glory, and, laying his hands upon the heads
of Joseph Smith and an associate in the ministry, Oliver Cowdery,
conferred upon them the Lesser or Aaronic Priesthood, saying:

"Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the
Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels,
and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the
remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth,
until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in
righteousness." (D&C, Sec. 13).

The personage who thus appeared and officiated as an angel of light
announced himself as John, known of old as the Baptist, and stated that
he acted under instructions from the Apostles Peter, James, and John,
who held the presidency of the Higher or Melchizedek Priesthood in the
earlier Gospel dispensation. Later, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery
were visited by the presiding Apostles of old, Peter, James and John,
who ordained them to the Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek,
which comprises the fulness of authority operative in the Church of
Jesus Christ.

In accordance with this high commission the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints has been established; and presents to the world today
"the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, viz.:
apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc."

Come ye and share the priceless blessings of the restored Gospel, for
verily, the darkness of the long night of apostasy has been dispelled,
and the spiritual light of heaven again illumines the earth.

"The morning breaks, the shadows flee;
Lo! Zion's standard is unfurled.
The dawning of a brighter day
Majestic rises on the world."



-- 31 --

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Ushering in of the Last Dispensation

THE inauguration of the last or current dispensation of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, which is verily the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times,
was in this wise.

In the year 1820 there lived at Manchester, N. Y., Joseph Smith Jr.
then in his fifteenth year, the third son in a respected and pious
family. At the time of which we speak great excitement with much
sectarian rivalry was manifest in religious matters, and the boy Joseph
was seriously concerned as to which of the contending sects was the
true Church of Christ; for it was plain that all could not be right.
Let us read the account written by himself.

"During this time of great excitement, my mind was called up to serious
reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and
often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties,
though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would
permit. In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the
Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them; but so
great were the confusion and strife among the different denominations,
that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted
with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was right
and who was wrong.

"My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great
and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists
and Methodists, and used all the powers of either reason or sophistry
to prove their errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were
in error. On the other hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn
were equally zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and
disprove all others. In the midst of this war of words and tumult of
opinions, I often said to myself, What is to be done? Who of all these
parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them
be right, which is it, and how shall I know it? While I was laboring
under the extreme difficulties caused by the contest of these parties
of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first
chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not;
and it shall be given him.

"Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart
of man than this did at this time to mine. . . . At length I came to
the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or
else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came
to the determination to ask of God, concluding that if He gave wisdom
to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid,
I might venture. . . . After I had retired to the place where I had
previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself
alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to
God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some
power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence
over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness
gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed
to sudden destruction.

"But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of
the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very
moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to
destruction--not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual
being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had
never before felt in any being--just at this moment of great alarm, I
saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the
sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

"It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the
enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two
Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing
above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and
said, pointing to the other--This is my beloved Son, hear Him!

"My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the
sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore,
did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked
the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects
was right--and which I should join.

"I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong;
and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an
abomination in His sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that
'they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from
me; they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form
of godliness, but they deny the power thereof."' (See Pearl of Great
Price, pp. 83-85).

Thus ended the long night of spiritual darkness in which man had groped
for centuries. Thus was begun the dispensation of which the ancient
prophets had spoken, in preparation for the coming of the Christ to
reign on earth as Lord and King.

This glorious and unprecedented manifestation of the Father and the
Son to a mortal was followed in later years by visitations of angelic
personages through whom the Holy Priesthood was again restored to
earth, and under whose direction the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints was established in April, 1830. Joseph Smith was a
prophet of the living God. His testimony is before the world. The
saving ordinances of the Gospel are again administered under Divine
authority, and the means of salvation are offered freely to all mankind.



-- 32 --

A GOD OF MIRACLES

Wonders Wrought by Devils

WE believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions,
healing, interpretation of tongues, etc. (Articles of Faith, No. 7).

The personal ministry of Jesus Christ in the flesh was characterized
by many mighty works--signs, wonders, miracles, as they are
severally called. The Apostles who labored to build up the Church
after the Master's departure attested the divinity of their calling
and priesthood by manifestations of power surpassing the ordinary
attributes of mortals. Thus, these holy men were endowed with the
ennobling gifts of the Spirit, which have been inherent in the Church
of Christ in all ages.

Multitudes have been troubled by the disquieting query as to why the
gifts of prophecy, visions, revelation, healing, and the power to speak
in diverse tongues are not apparent in the sectarian churches of modern
times, and have found partial satisfaction in the assumption, unfounded
and unscriptural though it be, that all such gifts and graces ceased
with the passing of apostolic days and are not required as testimonies
of the Spirit in a more enlightened age. That these spiritual gifts did
cease as the apostasy of the Primitive Church progressed is doubtless
true; but that the cause of the cessation was anything else than
transgression by which the apostasy was brought about is unsupported by
Scripture.

In His parting commission to the Apostles, the Resurrected Christ gave
this combined command and promise:

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth
not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In
my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it
shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall
recover." (Mark 16:15-18).

It is evident that the several gifts of the Spirit are the products
of faith in God and obedience to His commandments. That these
manifestations are brought about through the power of the Holy
Priesthood and are characteristic thereof is set forth in Paul's
teachings: "And God hath set some in the church, first apostles,
secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts
of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues." (1 Cor.
12:28).

Mormon, a prophet who ministered on the American continent in the
latter part of the fourth century, solemnly declared that miracles will
not cease in the Church so long as there shall be a man upon the earth
to be saved: "For it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is
by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore if these
things have ceased, wo be unto the children of men, for it is because
of unbelief, and all is vain." (Moroni 7:37).

Mark his inspired words addressed to those "who deny the revelations of
God, and say that they are done away, that there are no revelations,
nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor healing, nor speaking with tongues, and
the interpretation of tongues."

"Behold I say unto you, he that denieth these things, knoweth not the
gospel of Christ; yea, he has not read the scriptures; if so, he does
not understand them. For do we not read that God is the same yesterday,
today, and for ever; and in him there is no variableness neither
shadow of changing? And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a
god who doth vary, and in him there is shadow of changing, then have
ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles.
But behold, I will shew unto you a God of miracles, even the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that
same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in
them are." (Moroni 9:7-11).

Miracles are not promised save to those who believe and obey as the
Lord hath commanded. However marvelous they may be as gaged by physical
standards, the gifts of the Spirit appeal to the unbelieving and carnal
mind only as unusual and curious phenomena; while to the man of faith
they testify of the power and purposes of God. Many people followed
Jesus about through morbid curiosity, clamoring to see some strange
thing wrought; and degenerate Herod Antipas, before whom our Lord was
brought in bonds, was interested and amused, because "he hoped to have
seen some miracle done by Him." (Luke 23:8.) Through a revelation to
the Church in 1831 the Lord Jesus Christ gave this solemn admonishment
against the craving for spiritual gifts to gratify curiosity.

"Wherefore, beware lest ye are deceived; and that ye may not be
deceived, seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for
what they are given. For verily I say unto you, they are given for the
benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that
seeketh so to do, that all may be benefited that seeketh or that asketh
of me, that asketh and not for a sign that he may consume it upon his
lusts." (D&C 46:8-9).

We are not justified in regarding miracles as infallible testimony of
Divine power and authority, for powers of the baser sort work wonders,
to the deceiving of many. The magicians of Egypt were able to imitate
in small measure the miracles of Moses. John the Revelator told of evil
powers deceiving men by what seemed to be supernatural achievements,
and he saw unclean spirits, whom he knew to be "the spirits of devils
working miracles." (See Rev. 13: 13-14, and 16:13-14). And the Savior
Himself by this solemn warning armed the disciples against deception:
"There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew
great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall
deceive the very elect." (Matt. 24:24).

The distinguishing feature of a miraculous manifestation of the Holy
Spirit, as contrasted with a wonder wrought through other agencies,
lies in the fact that the former is always done in the name of Jesus
Christ and has for its object the fostering of faith and the furthering
of Divine purposes.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejoices in the
possession of the several gifts and graces with which the Church of old
was endowed; and within her pale signs do follow them that believe.
Come and see.



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IS THE BIBLE SUFFICIENT?

Scriptures of Many Peoples

WE believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated
correctly. We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
(Articles of Faith, No. 8).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts the Holy Bible
for just what it purports to be, nothing less, nothing more. Taken as a
whole the Holy Bible is a collection of sacred and historical writings,
depicting though incompletely the Divine dealings with mankind on the
Eastern Hemisphere from the creation down to about the close of the
first century after Christ. The Old Testament contains a brief record
of pre-Mosaic time, but is largely a history of the Semitic people or
Hebrews, as they lived under the Law of Moses. The New Testament is
distinctively the Scripture of the Gospel as contrasted with the Law,
and is devoted to the earthly ministry of the Savior and to the growth
of His Church under apostolic administration. The compilation as it
now stands is the work of men, and our modern translations from the
original Hebrew of the Old Testament and Greek of the New have been
made by skilled linguists and learned theologians.

But the wisdom of even the wisest of men may be faulty, and the
understanding of the prudent may be biased and dangerously imperfect.
The many revisions and successive versions of the Bible, made as the
errors of earlier renditions became strikingly apparent, testify
to the unreliability of scholarship in the translation of sacred
writ. Moreover, it is an indisputable fact that the compilation of
books constituting our present version is incomplete; for within
the Bible itself more than a score of books, epistles, or other
writings not included are mentioned, and generally in such a way as
to show that those lost Scriptures were considered authentic and
genuine. Furthermore, numerous Biblical passages are tinged with what
scholars call "gloss"--that is wording intended to convey the private
interpretation of the translator.

The Latter-day Saints openly proclaim their reservation as to incorrect
translation. We are in harmony with all able and earnest students of
the Scriptures in accepting the Bible as the Word of God, only so far
as it is translated correctly.

But we hold that there are now extant other Scriptures, of equal
validity with those of the Holy Bible, and in no sense in conflict
therewith nor a substitute therefor. For nearly six centuries before
and about four centuries after the birth of Christ, the American
continent was inhabited by a detached body of Israelites, who developed
into powerful nations. Their existence was unknown to the people of
the East. Is it unreasonable to believe that unto the western fold God
sent His shepherds, and that prophets officiated amongst them by Divine
appointment?

That the Book of Mormon would be rejected by many on the specious and
untenable claim that they already had a Bible and that there could be
no other Scriptures, the Lord foretold by the mouth of the prophet
Nephi:

"And because my words shall hiss forth, many of the Gentiles shall say,
A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more
Bible.

"Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I,
the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who
are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above,
and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children
of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?

"Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word?
Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you
that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore,
I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the
two nations shall run together, the testimony of the two nations shall
run together also.

"And I do this that I may prove unto many, that I am the same
yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words
according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one
word, ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is
not yet finished; neither shall it be, until the end of man; neither
from that time henceforth and forever.

"For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews, and they shall write it; and
I shall also speak unto the Nephites, and they shall write it; and I
shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I
have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all
nations of the earth, and they shall write it.

"And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the
Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the
Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of
Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the
Nephites and the Jews." (2 Nephi 29).

Thus is predicted the bringing forth of yet other Scriptures, not
extant among known nations today, viz., the records of the Lost Tribes
of Israel, to whom the Book of Mormon indicates the Resurrected Christ
went to minister after His visitation to the Nephites. In the present
or last dispensation numerous revelations have been given by Jesus
Christ to His modern prophets. Many of these are before the world in
the volume of latter-day Scripture known as the D&C.

It is noticeable that we make no reservation respecting the Book of
Mormon on the ground of incorrect translation. To do so would be to
ignore attested facts as to the bringing forth of that book. Joseph
Smith the prophet, seer, and revelator, through whom the ancient record
has been translated into our modern tongue, expressly avers that the
translation was effected through the gift and power of God, and is in
no sense the product of linguistic scholarship.

The Bible in its original form, and in modern versions so far as
correctly translated, contains the Word of God. Without it, the world
would be plunged into spiritual gloom. Nevertheless there are other
Scriptures already published, and yet others are to come.



-- 34 --

A MESSENGER

From the Presence of God

THE discovery of the ancient record known to mankind as the Book of
Mormon was no affair of chance. To the contrary, both the finding
of the plates of gold and the translation of the inscriptions were
specifically the result of Divine direction. So the following facts
attest.

On the 21st of September, 1823, Joseph Smith of Manchester, N. Y., was
visited by an angelic personage who announced himself as Moroni, "A
messenger sent from the presence of God."

"What!" the skeptical may exclaim, "A heavenly being visiting the earth
and talking to a man in these modern days?" To which interrogatory a
fair rejoinder is Why not? Has the God of Heaven changed in nature and
attributes, or found need of altering and revising His former and most
simple methods of communicating with men?

To the priest Zacharias in days of old came one saying "I am Gabriel,
that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee."
(Luke 1:19). To the prophet Joseph Smith in latter times came a
messenger with the same form of annunciation.

Both Gabriel and Moroni were ambassadors from the Eternal One, who
is the same yesterday, today and forever, and "with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1: 17; Heb. 13:8).

Part of Moroni's message delivered at this visitation is thus stated
by the latter-day prophet: "He said there was a book deposited,
written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants
of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also
said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it,
as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants. Also, that
there were two stones in silver bows--and these stones, fastened to a
breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim--deposited
with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what
constituted 'seers' in ancient or former times; and that God had
prepared them for the purpose of translating the book. . . . While
he was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was opened to
my mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited,
and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when I
visited it."

On going to the place the next day Joseph Smith located the stone box,
and with the aid of a lever removed the cover. His record continues:

"I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the
messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth
had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time;
but he told me that I should come to that place precisely in one year
from that time, and that he would there meet with me, and that I should
continue to do so until the time should come for obtaining the plates."

At the close of the fourth probationary year, the plates and
accessories were given into the custody of the latter-day seer. Of this
occasion and subsequent developments he wrote as follows:

"At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and
Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September,
one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at
the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the
same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge:
that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go
carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but
that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the
messenger, should call for them, they should be protected.

"I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to
keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I
had done what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no
sooner was it known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions
were used to get them from me. Every stratagem that could be invented
was resorted to for that purpose. The persecution became more bitter
and severe than before, and multitudes were on the alert continually to
get them from me if possible. But by the wisdom of God, they remained
safe in my hands, until I had accomplished by them what was required
at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the messenger called for
them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until
this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred and
thirty-eight."

Subsequent revelations showed that Moroni was the last of a long line
of prophets whose translated writings constitute the Book of Mormon.
By him the ancient records had been closed about 420 A. D.; by him the
graven plates had been deposited in the stone vault wherein they lay
buried over fourteen centuries; and through his appointed embassage
they were given into the possession of the latter-day seer whose work of
translation is before us.

Joseph Smith, unschooled beyond the rudiments of what we call an
education, unversed in any tongue but the vernacular English, was
wholly unequipped according to all human standards to translate the
language of a nation long extinct, and, except for certain Indian
traditions, forgotten. But the operation of a power higher than human,
by which the engraved plates were brought forth from the earth, was
to be effective in making the long-buried chronicles intelligible to
modern readers.

It was no part of the Lord's plan to entrust the translating to man's
linguistic skill; and, moreover, at that time the Rosetta Stone still
lay buried beneath the debris of ages, and there was not a man upon the
earth capable of rendering an Egyptian inscription into English. As
the Book of Mormon avers, the original writing was Egyptian, modified
through the isolation of the ancient peoples on the Western Continent,
and designated Reformed Egyptian.

It was divinely appointed that the sacred archives should be restored
to the knowledge of men through the gift and power of God. Had it
not been written that in the latter days the Lord would accomplish a
marvelous work and a wonder, whereby the wisdom of the wise would fail
and the understanding of the learned be hidden? (See Isa. 29: 13, 14).
And this because men would put their dogmas and precepts above the
revealed word? (Verse 13). In the translation of the Book of Mormon
there was to be no gloss of fallible scholarship, no attempt to improve
and embellish the plain, simple and unambiguous diction of the original
scribes who wrote by inspiration. Therefore was the commission laid
upon one who was rated among the weak of the earth, but whose ministry,
nevertheless, has confounded the mighty. (See 1 Cor. 1:27, 28).



-- 35 --

SCRIPTURES OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT

The Book of Mormon

THE Book of Mormon is preeminently an American book, comprising the
history of the aboriginal peoples of the New World. It professes to be
the modern translation of certain records, covering the period from B.
C. 600 to about A. D. 420, with which is incorporated the abridgment
of a yet earlier history. The original account was inscribed on thin
sheets of gold, in small characters of the Reformed Egyptian style.
The plates were taken from their repository on the side of a hill near
Palmyra, New York. This was in September, 1827; and in the early months
of 1830 the English translation was published.

The Book of Mormon story deals in part with the general history of
the ancient peoples, their rise and fall as nations, their wars and
intrigues of state, their alternating epochs of material prosperity
and adversity; but more particularly it preserves an account of the
Divine revelations, the prophets and prophecies with which the ancient
Americans were blessed; and thus the work stands before the world as
the Scriptures of the Western Continent.

This is the story in brief. In the closing years of the 7th century
B. C. there lived in Jerusalem a person of influence and wealth named
Lehi. He was a righteous man and a prophet, of the tribe of Manasseh
and therefore a descendant of Joseph, son of Jacob.

At the time of which we speak, Lehi and his wife were the parents
of four sons, of whom the elder two were of disobedient and unruly
character, in which respect they stood in striking contrast to their
dutiful brothers. Other children, both sons and daughters, are of later
mention.

Those were troublous days for Israel. The people had largely forgotten
the God of their fathers; and the calamities voiced by Moses and the
prophets as the contingent result of sins against which the people
had been specifically warned, were multiplying apace. Already the
shadows of the Babylonian captivity were falling athwart the nation.
Many prophets, Lehi among them, lifted their voices in admonition and
warning, crying repentance to the recreant Israelites, and predicting
that unless they turned from their wickedness the City of David,
their national boast and pride, would be despoiled and Israel be made
captive. Instead of heeding these men of God, the people went wild with
resentment and tried to slay them.

In the year 600 B. C., when Zedekiah ascended the throne of Judah,
the word of the Lord came to Lehi directing him to take his family
and flee from Jerusalem into the wilderness of Arabia. The scattering
of the Israelitish nation had been foretold, and the departure of
Lehi and his household, together with another entire family which was
of the tribe of Ephraim, and part of a third, was in line with the
general dispersion. Had it not so been declared by Isaiah? "For out of
Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount
Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." (2 Kings 19:31;
also Isa. 37:32).

The migrating colony journeyed by slow stages for about eight years
in the desert, during which time Lehi and his faithful younger son
Nephi received many revelations of the Divine word and will, through
which the purpose of their own exodus was made known, as were also
the portending vicissitudes of the nation from which they had become
expatriated by the Lord's command. Eventually they reached the shores
of the Arabian sea, where, divinely directed, they built a vessel, in
which they were carried by wind and current across the ocean to the
western coast of South America.

So long as unity prevailed the colony prospered in the Promised
Land, and with high birth-rate and few deaths soon became a numerous
people. With prosperity came pride and avarice, and the inevitable
accompaniment, dissension. The more righteous part chose Nephi for
their leader and called themselves Nephites, while the rebellious and
evil faction came to be known as Lamanites or followers of Laman, who
was the eldest and most wicked of Lehi's sons.

As the decades linked themselves into centuries the breach between
Nephites and Lamanites became wider, the enmity fiercer, and the
disparity in customs and culture greater; though for brief and
exceptional periods there was truce between them. The Nephites
maintained a relatively high standard of civilized activity, while
the Lamanites became a degenerate people, of nomadic and predatory
life, devoted mostly to warfare and the chase; and as a mark of Divine
displeasure they were cursed with a dark ruddy skin. Many and bloody
were the wars they waged against their more peaceable contemporaries.
Nevertheless the Nephites developed and throve in proportion to
their varying degrees of allegiance to the laws of God as made known
by the succession of prophets whom the Lord raised up among them;
and their departures from the ways of righteousness were followed
by the disciplinary suffering incident to Lamanite victories, which
were permitted to afflict them at intervals. They fled before their
aggressive foes, moving northward and eastward; so that in the course
of centuries they swept over a large part of the area now embraced by
Mexico and the United States.

The Gospel of salvation was taught and the fundamental ordinances
were administered among the Nephites; and the resurrected Lord, Jesus
Christ, ministered among them in Person, and declared them to be the
sheep of that other fold to which He had referred while preaching to
the Jews. See John 10:16.

About 420 A. D., the Nephites, having fallen into wickedness all the
more convicting because of their intellectual superiority, were utterly
destroyed as a nation by their hereditary enemies. The exterminating
conflict was fought in the vicinity of Palmyra, in the present State
of New York. The savage but victorious Lamanites have lived on as
the degraded race of red men, whom Columbus found in the land on the
occasion of his re-discovery of the Western Continent. Such is the
origin of the American Indians. They are of Israelitish descent,
belonging to the House of Joseph who was sold into Egypt.

From the time of Lehi's exodus from Jerusalem down to the end of
Nephite history, a circumstantial record was kept by scribes set apart
to the work. That record has been restored to human knowledge, and the
translated part has been given to the world as the Book of Mormon.

The announcement of such a discovery as that of the plates of Mormon,
and of such an achievement as the translation of the records into
English, could not fail to attract the attention of both layman and
scholar. But the announcement was treated with contempt and vigorous
denunciation.

The reason for this hostile rejection is found in the fact that
Joseph Smith, the translator, avowed that he had not accomplished the
marvelous work by his own or other human power alone, but that the
resting-place of the ancient plates had been revealed to him by an
angel, who appeared in light and glory, and announced himself as that
same Moroni who had sealed up and buried the inscribed plates over
fourteen centuries earlier. A further cause for the popular opposition
to the Book of Mormon lay in Joseph Smith's solemn testimony that
he had been empowered to make the translation through the direct
inspiration of God.

This avowal introduced the element of the supernatural. If Joseph Smith
spoke truly, miracles had not ceased, and direct revelation from God to
man was of modern certainty. Such a conception was wholly opposed by
theological theory and churchly dogma. And yet, why in reason should
direct revelation from the heavens be more of an improbability today
than in the centuries of long ago? Except as to the extent of the
writing, is the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon any more of a
marvel than the inspired reading of the mystic words by Daniel in the
midst of Belshazzar's riotous feast? (See Dan. 5:25-31). And surely
the means by which the writing was done appears far more mysterious in
the case of the Chaldean king than in the ordinary and human way of
engraving the Book of Mormon plates.

The Book of Mormon is before the world. It has been distributed by
millions of copies in English and other modern tongues. Let it be
understood that in no sense does the Book of Mormon profess to be a
substitute for the Holy Bible, or to be in any way related thereto
except as a parallel volume of Scripture. The Bible is essentially a
record of the dealings of God with His people of the East; the Book
of Mormon is an embodiment of Divine revelations to the people of the
West. So far as the two books touch common themes they are in harmony;
and in no particular are they contradictory of each other.



-- 36 --

BY THE MOUTH OF WITNESSES

Shall the Truth be Established

MOSES voiced the word of Jehovah unto Israel, saying that by the
testimony of competent witnesses should questions of fact be
established; and our Lord in the flesh reaffirmed the ancient rule
for common observance (Matt. 18:16), and, on a particular occasion,
cited it in vindicating to the casuistical Jews His claim to Divine
authority. (John 8:17, 18). It is a vital element of jurisprudence, and
is at once reasonable and indispensable in practise.

The Book of Mormon predicts its own coming forth in latter times, and
presents the specific prophecy that the plates on which the ancient
record was engraved would be shown to three witnesses, and later to
certain others. The sacred character of the plates forbade their
display for the gratification of curiosity; and, moreover, it was the
stated purpose of the Lord that the restored Scriptures be accepted
or rejected by men according to the reader's measure of faith or lack
thereof.

Respecting the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon in the latter days,
the Lord thus spake through Nephi the prophet: "Wherefore at that day
when the book shall be delivered unto the man of whom I have spoken,
the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world, that the eyes of none
shall behold it save it be that three witnesses shall behold it, by
the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered; and
they shall testify to the truth of the book and the things therein. And
there is none other which shall view it, save it be a few according to
the will of God, to bear testimony of his word unto the children of
men: for the Lord God hath said, That the words of the faithful should
speak as if it were from the dead. Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed
to bring forth the words of the book; and in the mouth of as many
witnesses as seemeth him good, will he establish his word; and wo be
unto him that rejecteth the word of God." (2 Nephi 27).

The angel, Moroni, who delivered the plates to Joseph Smith, received
them back into his keeping after the translation of the unsealed
portion had been effected. The latter-day prophet had been instructed
to guard the plates with vigilant care, and was warned against any
temptation to use the sheets of gold for personal gain. They were
preserved inviolate while in his hands; and were shown by him only
as the Lord directed. In June, 1829, three men, designated through
revelation, were chosen to view the plates, and the occasion was one of
heavenly visitation.

The Testimony of Three Witnesses

"Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people unto whom
this work shall come, that we, through the grace of God the Father, and
our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record,
which is a record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites,
their brethren, and also of the people of Jared, who came from the
tower of which hath been spoken; and we also know that they have been
translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared
it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true. And
we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the
plates; and they have been shewn unto us by the power of God, and not
of man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God
came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that
we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know
that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
that we beheld and bear record that these things are true; and it is
marvellous in our eyes, nevertheless the voice of the Lord commanded
us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto
the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we
know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of
the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment-seat
of Christ, and shall dwell with Him eternally in the heavens. And the
honour be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which
is one God. Amen. _Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Martin Harris_."

This solemn affirmation was never revoked nor in the least degree
modified, though all of the three were later severed from the Church
for transgression. To the time of death each maintained the truth
of his testimony, despite ridicule and divers sufferings through
persecution.

Shortly after the witnessing of the plates by the three, other eight
persons were permitted to see and handle the records, as they thus
attest:

The Testimony of Eight Witnesses

"Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people unto whom
this work shall come, that Joseph Smith, Jun., the translator of this
work, has shewn unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which
have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said
Smith has translated, we did handle with our hands; and we also saw
the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient
work, and of curious workmanship. And this we bear record with words of
soberness, that the said Smith has shewn unto us, for we have seen and
hefted, and know of a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of
which we have spoken. And we give our names unto the world to witness
unto the world that which we have seen; and we lie not, God bearing
witness of it. _Christian Whitmer, Jacob Whitmer, Peter Whitmer, Jun.,
John Whitmer, Hiram Page, Joseph Smith, Sen., Hyrum Smith, Samuel H.
Smith_."

Three of these eight died out of the Church, yet not one of the whole
number ever was known to deny his testimony. Had policy figured in
the matter, as doubtless would have been the case in the fraudulent
exploitation of a spurious book, the Church might have been expected
to tolerate misconduct on the part of members so vitally prominent in
its affairs; but the ban of excommunication fell, as justice demanded,
without respect to persons. The biography of each of the eleven
witnesses has been widely published. Their testimonies appear in every
copy of the Book of Mormon. Read and consider.



-- 37 --

VOICES OF THE DEAD

A Testimony from the Dust

ON September 22, 1827, Joseph Smith, a youthful resident of Manchester,
N. Y., took from the side of a hill in that vicinity a book made up of
thin leaves of beaten gold, held together by rings after the fashion
of our modern loose-leaf records. As described by the finder, and by
others to whom they were shown, these golden leaves or plates were
engraved with fine characters having all the appearance of ancient and
curious workmanship.

The engraved plates had been laid away with care and attention to
preservation; for, when uncovered, they were found, together with
certain other antique objects, resting in a small vault or box of
stone. "The box in which they lay," wrote Joseph Smith, "was formed by
laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box
were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the
plates and the other things with them." The top slab or lid of the box
"was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner
towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the
ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth."

As subsequent examination proved, the graven characters constituted a
history of the aboriginal peoples of the Western Continent, of whom the
existing tribes of American Indians are the posterity. A part of the
ancient record has been translated into English and the modern version
was first published in 1830 as The Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon contains pointed and specific predictions of its
own coming forth in the latter days; and these prophecies harmonize
with the Biblical Scriptures. The ancient peoples whose voice is again
heard among the living were of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh,
and therefore of the family of Joseph, son of Jacob. With this fact
in mind, the thoughtful student finds profound significance in the
otherwise obscure words of Ezekiel (37:15-20): "The word of the Lord
came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one
stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his
companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the
stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: And
join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in
thine hand."

To the puzzled questioners who would ask the meaning of all this, the
prophet was told to declare the Lord's purpose in this wise: "Thus
saith the Lord God; Behold I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in
the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put
them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick,
and they shall be one in mine hand."

Plainly the record of Judah, which we recognize as the Holy Bible, was
to be supplemented by the record of Joseph; and the bringing forth of
the latter was to be effected by the direct exercise of Divine power,
for the Lord said "I will take the stick of Joseph"; and of the two He
averred "they shall be one in mine hand," even as the prototypes had
become one in the hand of Ezekiel.

If the testimony of scholars as to Biblical chronology be reliable,
Lehi and his colony had already crossed the great waters and become
well established in America when Ezekiel voiced this significant
prophecy concerning the "stick" or record of Joseph as being distinct
from that of Judah. The prediction has been fulfilled. The Holy Bible
and the Book of Mormon, the records of Judah and Joseph respectively,
are before the world, each attesting the authenticity of the other, and
each standing as an irrefutable testimony of the atoning life, death,
and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A century and a half earlier, Isaiah had cried wo unto Ariel, the City
of David; and had made distinction between Judah who then occupied
Ariel or Jerusalem, and another people with whom comparison is made.
Note the prediction: "And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak
out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and
thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the
ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust." (Isa. 29:4).

The Book of Mormon contains pointed and specific predictions of its own
coming forth in the latter days, and these prophecies harmonize with
the Biblical Scriptures. Nephi, foreseeing the eventual annihilation
of his people as the result of transgression, and having been shown in
vision the degraded future of the Lamanites, whom he designated "the
seed of my brethren," spoke of the promised restoration of the records
in this wise:

"But behold, I prophesy unto you concerning the last days; concerning
the days when the Lord God shall bring these things forth unto the
children of men. After my seed and the seed of my brethren shall have
dwindled in unbelief, and shall have been smitten by the Gentiles;
yea, after the Lord God shall have camped against them round about,
and shall have laid siege against them with a mount, and raised forts
against them; and after they shall have been brought down low in the
dust, even that they are not, yet the words of the righteous shall be
written, and the prayers of the faithful shall be heard, and all those
who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be forgotten. For those who
shall be destroyed shall speak unto them out of the ground, and their
speech shall be low out of the dust, and their voice shall be as one
that hath a familiar spirit; for the Lord God will give unto him power,
that he may whisper concerning them, even as it were out of the ground;
and their speech shall whisper out of the dust." (2 Nephi 26).

The nation thus "brought down" has spoken "out of the ground"; her
speech has come forth "out of the dust"; for the original of the Book
of Mormon was actually taken out of the ground, and the voice of the
sacred record is as that of one speaking from the dust of the past.



-- 38 --

A NEW WITNESS OF THE CHRIST

An Independent Scripture

THE angel Moroni, who made known to Joseph Smith the existence and
repository of the inscribed plates from which the Book of Mormon has
been translated, informed the modern prophet that the metallic pages
contained the fulness of the everlasting Gospel as delivered by the
Savior to the former inhabitants of the Western Continent. The book is
more than a series of annals and chronicles.

Invaluable as the ancient record may have proved in giving to man the
history of a once mighty but now extinct nation, in demonstrating the
origin and significance of traditions cherished by the degenerate
Indians as evidence of a more enlightened past, in explaining
ethnological data otherwise unrelated and largely inexplicable--in
these respects the Book of Mormon could have been nothing more than an
important contribution to the common fund of human knowledge, possibly
of great academic interest but certainly of small vital value.

No apology could be consistently demanded for surprise, wonder, or
even incredulity over the announcement of a messenger sent from the
presence of God to restore to the possession of mortals a mere history
of dynasties and kingdoms, of migrations and battles, of cities builded
and destroyed, and of the rise and fall of commonwealths.

The miraculous interposition of Divine power in such a matter is
without recorded precedent and apparently lacking in the essential
element of necessity.

The priceless character of the Book of Mormon lies in its sacredness
as a compilation of Holy Scripture, telling primarily of the dealings
of God with the ancient peoples of the West, of the Divine purpose
in their isolation on a previously unknown continent, the teaching
and practise of the Gospel with all its essential laws and ordinances
enjoined through revelation entirely apart from the Biblical
Scriptures, and particularly of the solemn testimony of a great nation
relating to the atoning death and literal resurrection of Jesus Christ,
the Redeemer and Savior of the race.

The avowed purpose of Jehovah, in leading Lehi and his colony from
Jerusalem and conducting them across the great waters to the American
shores, was to separate unto Himself a body of Israelites who would
be cleansed from false tradition and the defiling precepts of men
respecting the appointed mission of Christ in the flesh. As Moses was
led into the desert and later into the mountain top, as Elijah was
impelled to seek the cavern's solitude, that each might the better
hear the Divine voice--so a nation was sequestered in the New World
that they might learn the word of revealed truth in its simplicity and
plainness.

In the mind of God it had been decreed that the life, death, and
resurrection of His Only Begotten Son be attested by other witnesses
than Galilee, Samaria and Judea. While Lehi and his people were
journeying through the deserts of Arabia, the Lord revealed by vision
and the visitation of angels unto the prophet and again unto Nephi
that, six hundred years later, the Son of the Eternal Father would be
born of the Virgin of Nazareth, that He was to be the Redeemer of the
world, that a prophet would go before Him crying repentance unto the
people and baptizing them in Jordan, and that twelve Apostles would
attend the Savior and continue to teach and administer after the Lord's
death and resurrection.

The doctrine of the coming Christ and the necessity of repentance and
baptism had been preached by prophets throughout the six centuries
of preparation. At the time of our Lord's birth at Bethlehem, the
predicted signs of the glad event were witnessed in America, and
prominent among these was the absence of darkness between two days.
The tragedy on Calvary was signalized in the West, as the prophets had
foretold, by great disturbances of the earth, and by the continuation
of darkness between two nights.

The more righteous part of the people had been preserved from
destruction; and to a multitude of these, assembled about the
Temple, the crucified and resurrected Lord appeared, with the solemn
accompaniment of the Father's proclamation from the heavens: "Behold
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my
name: hear ye Him." (3 Nephi, chap. 11).

The people looked upward, "And behold they saw a Man descending out of
heaven; and He was clothed in a white robe, and He came down and stood
in the midst of them, and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned
upon Him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another,
and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had
appeared unto them. And it came to pass that He stretched forth His
hand and spake unto the people, saying, Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom
the prophets testified shall come into the world; And behold, I am the
light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter
cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in
taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the
will of the Father in all things from the beginning."

He permitted them to see and feel the wounds of the cross in His hands,
feet, and side; and they worshiped Him.

The Book of Mormon is a new and independent witness of the divinity of
Jesus Christ and His Gospel, by which all mankind may be saved through
obedience, and without which no man can have place in the Kingdom of
God.



-- 39 --

WHEN CHRIST STOOD ON AMERICAN SOIL

His Church Established Among the Ancient Americans

DURING His brief period of mortal ministry our Lord the Christ
established His Church, with Apostles empowered and directed to
administer the ordinances essential to membership and to build up the
institution. This was done in Palestine; and from that land the message
of salvation was carried into every country known to the inhabitants of
the Eastern Continent. In the period immediately following the Lord's
departure, the Apostles prosecuted the work of the ministry with such
zeal and effectiveness that we read of them: "And they went forth, and
preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the
word with signs following." (Mark 16:20).

We are expressly informed of the rapid growth of the Church in
apostolic times. Paul, writing approximately thirty years after
the Ascension, declared that the Gospel had been made known to
every nation--"preached to every creature under heaven," by which
comprehensive statement the Apostle doubtless meant that the Gospel had
been so generally proclaimed in known lands that all who would might
have learned of it.

The Apostles had been instructed to go into all the world and to preach
the Gospel to every creature, with the assurance that such as accepted
their message and were baptized as the Lord had commanded would be
saved, while such as rejected the Gospel would be damned.

So far as we know, during the apostolic epoch and for more than a
millennium thereafter, the existence of a Western Continent was
known to no one in the East. Nevertheless, at that very time and for
centuries before, America was inhabited by powerful nations, who
exhibited the entire range of attainment from savagery to refinement
and culture, and all the gradations from deviltry to godliness.

It was obviously impossible for the Galilean Apostles, by any but
miraculous and supernatural aid, to carry the Gospel to the western
world, and we find scriptural warrant for the assertion that they did
not so.

Nevertheless, the Church of Jesus Christ was established upon the
American continent, and that through the personal ministry of the Risen
Lord, soon after His ascension from Mount Olivet. The Book of Mormon
contains a circumstantial account of this marvelous theophany.

Jesus Christ visited the aboriginal peoples of the Western Continent.
His identity affirmed by the voice of the Eternal Father and by His own
solemn testimony, the Resurrected Christ, still bearing the wounds of
the cross in hands and feet and side, declared that the old order under
the Mosaic Law was fulfilled and abrogated in Him; and straightway He
proceeded to organize His Church under the new or Gospel dispensation.

He chose twelve men, whom He ordained to be special witnesses of
Himself and the Church; and to them He gave authority to administer
the ordinances essential to salvation, as He had done on the other
hemisphere.

Baptism had been practised among the Nephites prior to this visitation,
and disputation had arisen as to the mode and purpose of the ordinance.
The Savior cautioned the Nephite Twelve and the people generally
against schism and contention. To the ordained disciples He said:

"On this wise shall ye baptize; and there shall be no disputations
among you. Verily I say unto you, that whoso repenteth of his sins
through your words, and desireth to be baptized in my name, on this
wise shall ye baptize them: behold, ye shall go down and stand in the
water, and in my name shall ye baptize them. And now behold, these are
the words which ye shall say, calling them by name, saying: Having
authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. And then shall ye
immerse them in the water, and come forth again out of the water. . . .
And there shall be no disputations among you, as there hath hitherto
been; neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the
points of my doctrine, as there hath hitherto been. For verily, verily
I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but
is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up
the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. . . . And
this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given
unto me. . . . And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same
shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned."
(Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11).

Then by specific commission He empowered the Twelve Disciples to
administer the higher baptism of the Spirit, or the bestowal of the
Gift of the Holy Ghost.

The sacrament of bread and wine was instituted by the Lord for the
further blessing of those who, after due confession of faith and
repentance, had been baptized in His name. As to partaking of the
broken and consecrated bread He gave special commandment: "And this
shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shewn unto you. And
it shall be a testimony unto the Father, that ye do always remember me.
And if ye do always remember me, ye shall have my Spirit to be with
you."

In connection with the administration of the sacramental wine He said:
"Ye shall do it in remembrance of my blood, which I have shed for you,
that ye may witness unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And
if ye do always remember me, ye shall have my Spirit to be with you."
(18:7-11).

We read further: "And they who were baptized in the name of Jesus were
called the Church of Christ." (26:21).

Thus was the Church of Jesus Christ organized among the ancient
Americans. For nearly two centuries it flourished with such fruitage of
blessing as had never before been known. Then the weeds of dissension
attained so rank a growth as to well-nigh smother the tree of the
Lord's own planting. Man-made churches sprang up, and persecution, foul
sister to intolerance, became rampant.

About four hundred years after the visitation of Christ, the Church in
America ceased to exist, for an overwhelming tide of apostasy had swept
the New as well as the Old World, and by Divine allowance the Nephite
nation fell a prey to its hereditary foes.



-- 40 --

EAST AND WEST IN ONE ACCLAIM

That Jesus is the Christ

TWO national histories, separate and distinct, written on opposite
hemispheres, unite in circumstantial testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the World's Redeemer; and these are embodied in independent volumes
of Scripture--The Holy Bible and The Book of Mormon.

The evidence of witnesses, whether individuals, coteries or nations,
refutes itself if it fail in consistency, mutual support, and agreement
in all substantials. The most critical examination of these two
compilations of Scripture as to this vital feature is invited.

Among the outstanding facts of profoundest import recorded in the Bible
concerning Jesus Christ and His mission are these:

1. His preexistence and antemortal Godship.

2. His foreordination as the Redeemer and Savior of mankind.

3. Predictions of His embodiment in the flesh, as the Son of the
Eternal Father and of mortal woman.

4. The fulfilment of these predictions in His birth as Mary's Child.

5. The sending of a forerunner, John the Baptist, to prepare the way
for the Lord's public ministry.

6. Christ's earthly life, covering about a third of a century,
characterized by beneficent service, by authoritative administration,
and by unexceptionable example.

7. The establishment of His Church with duly ordained Apostles, who,
with other ministers invested with the Holy Priesthood, carried forward
the work of salvation after the Lord's departure.

8. The specific and authentic enunciation of the fundamental principles
and ordinances of the Gospel, by which the way of salvation has been
opened to all, and without which none can abide in the Kingdom of
God, these comprising: (1) Faith in Him as the Son of God and the
Redeemer of the world; (2) Repentance of sin; (3) Baptism by immersion
for the remission of sins; and (4) Bestowal of the Holy Ghost by the
authoritative laying on of hands.

9. The Lord's sacrificial and atoning death.

10. His actual resurrection, whereby His spirit was reunited with the
crucified body and He became a glorified and immortalized Soul.

11. His ministry as a Resurrected Being among men.

12. His exaltation to the place He had won at the right hand of God the
Eternal Father.

13. The general apostasy of mankind from the Gospel of Christ, bringing
about an era of spiritual darkness.

14. The restoration of the Holy Priesthood in the latter days, by
which the Gospel would be again preached in power and its ordinances
administered for the salvation of men.

15. The assurance of our Lord's yet future return to earth, in glory
and judgment, to inaugurate the predicted Millennium of peace and
righteousness.

16. His eternal status as Judge of both quick and dead, and the
eventual Victor over sin and death.

In every particular, even to circumstantial detail, the Scriptures of
the West accord with those of the East in their solemn witness to these
portentous developments of the Divine plan, which has for its purpose
"the immortality and eternal life of man." The voice of the continents,
the independent testimonies of Judah and Ephraim, the Scriptures of the
Jews and those of the Nephites, are heard in tuneful harmony bearing
true witness to the world of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In vindication of the prophets of both East and West, the Holy
Priesthood has been restored to the earth in this latter age, and
the saving ordinances of the Lord's House are again administered for
the salvation of souls. In this glorious restoration, coupled with
the miraculous bringing forth of the Book of Mormon, is found a rich
fulfilment of ancient prophecy; for verily Truth has sprung out of the
earth, and Righteousness has come down from heaven. (See Psa. 85:11).

Now, in olden times at least two witnesses were required to establish
the truth of any important fact; and thus spake the Lord respecting
the independent testimony of nations concerning Himself: "Wherefore
murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not
that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am
God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak
the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two
nations shall run together, the testimony of the two nations shall run
together also. . . . Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible, ye need
not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that
I have not caused more to be written. . . . For behold, I shall speak
unto the Jews, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto
the Nephites, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the
other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they
shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth,
and they shall write it. . . . And it shall come to pass that my people
which are of the house of Israel, shall be gathered home unto the lands
of their possessions; and my word also shall be gathered in one." (2
Nephi 29).

The theme of this unified anthem of Divine ministry is the preparation
of the race for the impending advent of the Lord, who shall stand in
Bodily Presence upon the earth, to subdue wickedness and reign in
righteousness in company with all who shall have become His.



-- 41 --

SHEEP OF ANOTHER FOLD

Shepherds and Sheep-Herders

OUR Lord's likening Himself to a shepherd and His followers to sheep
has been an inspiration to poets, preachers, artists, and devout souls
generally throughout the centuries of our era. While all His discourses
are fraught with a significance that increases with repeated readings,
some of His utterances are of outstanding interest because of their
universal application and personal appeal. The sermon of the Good
Shepherd is prominent in this class. Read John 10.

None other than the Lord Himself has depicted so forcefully and yet
simply the contrast between shepherd and sheep-herder, between owner
and hireling, between him who is ready to defend the sheep because he
loves them, and the other who sees in the flock only so much wool,
hide, and mutton.

Our literature contains no more striking differentiation of devoted
service from money-loving effort than that presented in this brief,
terse, yet comprehensive discourse. Every efficient laborer is worthy
of his hire, or ought to be, be he plowman, artizan or professional,
artist, teacher or preacher. Far from there being discredit in
receiving wage for work, this reciprocal relationship is a fundamental
necessity of community existence. But he whose sole purpose and
interest is the wage, without devotion to the service for its intrinsic
good, is but a hired servant and likely so to remain.

Never has been spoken a stronger arraignment of insincere teachers,
false pastors, self-seeking hirelings--those who teach for pelf and
divine for dollars, robbers who pose as shepherds yet avoid the door to
the fold and climb up "some other way," prophets in the devil's employ
who, to achieve their master's purpose, hesitate not to robe themselves
in assumed sanctity, and appear in sheep's clothing while inwardly they
are ravening wolves. (Matt. 7:15).

In the record of this profound discourse, one verse appears as an
abrupt interpolation, bearing little relation aside from imagery with
preceding or following verses. This reads: "And other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear
my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." (John 10:16).

The Bible contains no related passage affording explanation.
Commentators treat this verse as an isolated and unconnected utterance,
and content themselves with the suggestion that the "other sheep" may
be the Gentile nations who are to be brought into the Jewish fold under
the one Shepherd. The Jews who heard the Lord speak so understood Him.
The Book of Mormon, however, illumines our understanding of the quoted
Scripture, and explains the Lord's purpose in speaking as He did and in
leaving the subject without further exposition.

Shortly after His ascension, Christ visited a detached body of
Israelites then existing as a great nation on the Western Continent. To
them He declared Himself to be the slain and resurrected Son of God,
through whom alone salvation was made possible to man. He gave them
precepts and commandments, and chose twelve disciples whom He ordained
to teach the Gospel and to administer in His name the ordinances
thereof. To them He said, referring to the Jews amongst whom He had
lived and died:

"This much did the Father command me, that I should tell unto them:
That other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must
bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and
one shepherd. And now because of stiffneckedness and unbelief, they
understood not my word; therefore I was commanded to say no more of the
Father concerning this thing unto them. . . . And verily, I say unto
you, that ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not
of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice;
and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. And they understood me
not, for they supposed it had been the Gentiles; for they understood
not that the Gentiles should be converted through their preaching. And
they understood me not that I said they shall hear my voice; and they
understood me not that the Gentiles should not at any time hear my
voice; that I should not manifest myself unto them, save it were by the
Holy Ghost. But behold, ye have both heard my voice, and seen me; and
ye are my sheep, and ye are numbered among those whom the Father hath
given me." (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 15:16-24).

It is evident that even the Jewish Apostles had failed to apprehend
the real significance of the Master's words; for they had vaguely
surmised that He would manifest Himself in personal ministry among the
Gentiles, oblivious to the fact that He had been sent to the lost sheep
of the House of Israel; and that only through the ministrations of His
ordained representatives would the Gospel be declared to the Gentile
world.

But, as other parts of the sacred record make plain, the Gospel
is offered freely to the Gentiles of the earth, and they through
acceptance and obedience shall be numbered with Israel and be made
partakers of the blessings assured by covenant to the righteous. See
Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 30:2; 3 Nephi 16:13.



-- 42 --

FROM GOD TO MAN

Divine Communication in the Current Age

WE believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and
we believe that he will yet reveal many great and important things
pertaining to the Kingdom of God. (Articles of Faith, No. 9).

Revelation, direct and personal from God to men, is the dominant theme
of Scripture. Expunge from the Bible all record of actual revelation
and reference thereto, and what remains? Nothing more than a variety of
historical sketches, chronicles, genealogical data, some chapters of
ethical value, a few poetical rhapsodies, proverbs, and allegories.

Every believer in the authenticity of the Holy Bible acknowledges that
God literally spake to Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Moses,
and that specific revelation was given to Israel during the time of
the Judges, and on to David and Solomon, thence to John who was the
immediate forerunner of the Messiah. The actuality of Divine revelation
through duly constituted prophets, seers, and revelators, has been so
generally accepted throughout the ages, and is so abundantly attested,
that by all rules of argument and debate the burden of proof naturally
and properly falls upon him who denies.

Continued revelation of the Divine will and purpose is in harmony with
the spirit of the times. In no phase of human effort and advancement,
save only that of the soul's salvation, do men venture to assert
or even think that we have learned all there is to learn. What of
a college professor in chemistry, geology, or astronomy, who would
confine his students to the conning of books that tell of early
discoveries, with the dictum that nothing remains to be discovered,
instead of guiding them in laboratory and field, and in the searching
of the outer deep with telescope and spectroscope, in the confident
hope of finding new truths?

Revelation is God's means of communication with His children, and we
deny the consistent and unchangeable character of Deity when we say
that God has revealed Himself to man, but cannot or will not do so
again. Is it reasonable to hold that in one age the Church of Christ
was blessed, enlightened, and guided by direct revelation and that at
another time the Church is to be left to itself, sustained only by
the dead letter of earlier days? The living Church must be in vital
communication with its Divine Head.

The Christ Himself was a revelator, through whom the Father's will was
made known to man. Notwithstanding His personal authority as Jehovah,
God though He had been, was, and is, while He lived as a Man among men
Jesus Christ declared His work to be that of One greater than Himself,
from whom He had been sent, and by whom He was instructed and directed.
Note His words: "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which
sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should
speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever
I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak." (John
12:49-50).

The recreant and unbelieving Jews rejected their Lord because He came
to them with a new revelation. Had they not Moses and the prophets?
What more could they need? They openly boasted "We are Moses'
disciples," and added "We know that God spake unto Moses; as for this
fellow, we know not from whence he is." (John 9:28-29). Those who deny
the possibility of present day revelation are not distinguished by
originality; they follow a beaten path, hard trodden by ignoble feet.

The Apostles ministered under the guiding influence of revelation. Paul
writing to the Corinthians said: "But God hath revealed them [Divine
truths] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God
knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. 2:10-12).

The imperative need of continued revelation appears in the fact that
new conditions and unprecedented combinations of circumstances arise
with the passage of time, and Divine direction alone can meet the new
issues.

The Apostle John knew that in the last days, these present days, the
voice of God would be heard calling His people from the Babylon of sin
to the Zion of safety: "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,
Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and
that ye receive not of her plagues." (Rev. 18:4; see also 14:6).

Nephi, an ancient prophet whose record appears in the Book of Mormon,
addressed himself to the unbelievers of the last days, and thus
predicted the bringing forth of additional Scriptures: "And it shall
come to pass, that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words of
a book, and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered. And
behold the book shall be sealed: and in the book shall be a revelation
from God." (2 Nephi, 27: 6-7).

Through the Hebrew prophet Malachi the Lord promised additional
revelation in the last days, by the coming of Elijah with a special
and particular commission. (Mal. 4: 5-6). These prophecies have been
fulfilled to the letter in modern time, the first by the bringing forth
of the Book of Mormon and its publication to the world: the latter by
the inauguration of vicarious work for the dead through the personal
visitation of Elijah, a work now in vigorous prosecution in the Temples
erected and maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.

Not only has the voice of God been heard in modern times, but His
words spell rebuke and reproof unto those who would close His mouth
and estrange Him from His people. Verily hath He spoken, "proving to
the world that the Holy Scriptures are true, and that God does inspire
men and call them to his holy work in this age and generation, as
well as in generations of old, thereby showing that he is the same
God yesterday, to-day, and for ever." (D&C 20:11-12). Of old the Lord
proclaimed: "Wo be unto him that shall say, We have received the word
of God, and we need no more of the word of God, for we have enough"
(Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 28:29); and in this age hath He spoken words
of admonition and warning: "Deny not the Spirit of revelation, nor the
Spirit of prophecy, for wo unto him that denieth these things." (D&C
11:25).



-- 43 --

THE TRAGEDY OF ISRAEL

A Nation Without a Country

WE believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration
of the Ten Tribes, etc. (Articles of Faith, No. 10).

The gathering of Israel is contingent upon the fact of that people's
dispersion. Consideration of the scattering is a necessary preliminary
to a study of the reassembling of Israel's hosts.

God made covenant with Abraham that through him and his posterity
should all nations of the earth be blessed. A rich fulfilment of the
promise is found in the earthly birth of the Christ through the lineage
of Abraham. Further and related fulfilment appears in the effect of
the distribution of Israelites amongst other nations through enforced
dispersion.

Abraham's descendants through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob have
been distinctively known since Jacob's time as Israelites, or the
Children of Israel. As the Old Testament avouches they grew to be
a mighty nation, distinguished in certain respects from all other
peoples. They were particularly characterized as "Jehovah worshipers,"
professing allegiance to the living God, whilst all the rest of the
world was pagan and idolatrous. By their world wide dispersion a
knowledge of the true and living God has been diffused.

So long as the Israelites were true to the Divine covenants made with
Abraham, and reaffirmed severally with Isaac and Jacob, they prospered
in material things as in spiritual power. So far as they became
alienated through pagan practises and unrighteous affiliations, they
suffered both individually and as a nation.

The Lord set before them the alternative of blessed perpetuity incident
to their faithfulness, or disruption and subjugation to alien powers as
the sure result of disobedience to Divine requirement. Both sacred and
secular history make plain that Israel chose the evil part, forfeiting
the promised blessings, reaping the foretold curses.

At the death of Solomon the nation was divided. Approximately two of
the twelve tribes became established as the Kingdom of Judah, and
came in time to be currently known as Jews; the rest of the tribes
retained the title Kingdom of Israel, though known also by the name of
Ephraim. The division led eventually to the eclipse of both kingdoms as
autonomous powers among the known nations of the earth.

The Kingdom of Israel was subdued by the Assyrians about 721 B. C.; the
people were carried into captivity, and later disappeared so completely
from history as to be designated the Lost Tribes. These are the ten
tribes whose restoration is predicted as an event of latter times. The
Kingdom of Judah maintained a precarious and partial independence for
a little more than a century after the Assyrian captivity, and then
fell a prey to the conquering hosts of Nebuchadnezzar. After seventy
years of bondage, the period specified through prophecy by Jeremiah
(25:11, 12; 29:10), a considerable number of the people were permitted
to return to Judea, where they rebuilt the temple, and vainly strove to
reestablish themselves on the scale of their vanished greatness. They
were impoverished by the aggressions of Syria and Egypt, and eventually
became tributary to Rome, in which condition of vassalage they existed
at the time of Christ's earthly ministry amongst them.

From the numerous Biblical prophecies relating to Israel's dispersion
the following are cited as particularly illustrative:

"And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left
few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you."
(Deut. 4:27.)

"And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the
countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee." (Ezek. 22:15).

"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all
nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least
grain fall upon the earth." (Amos 9:9).

"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away
captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke 21:24).

And so, in progressive stages, the covenant people of God have been
scattered. The bringing of a body of Israelites to the Western
Continent six centuries before the birth of Christ, of which the Book
of Mormon bears record, was part of the general dispersion, and was so
recognized by Nephite prophets.

Since the destruction of Jerusalem and the final disruption of the
Jewish nation by the Romans, A. D. 71, the Jews have been largely
wanderers upon the face of the earth, outcasts among the nations, a
people without a country, a nation without a home. Israel has been
sifted "like as corn is sifted in a sieve"; but, be it remembered that
coupled with the dread prediction was the assuring promise "Yet shall
not the least grain fall upon the earth."

The record made by that division of the house of Israel which took its
departure from Jerusalem, and made its way to the Western Hemisphere
about 600 B. C., contains many references to the dispersions that had
already taken place, and to the continuation of the scattering which
was to the writers of the Book of Mormon yet future. In the course of
the journey to the coast, the prophet Lehi, while encamped with his
family and other followers in the valley of Lemuel on the borders of
the Red Sea, declared what he had learned by revelation of the future
"dwindling of the Jews in unbelief," of their crucifying the Messiah,
and of their scattering "upon all the face of the earth." He compared
Israel to an olive tree, the branches of which were to be broken off
and distributed; and he recognized the exodus of his colony, and their
journeying afar, as an incident in the general plan of dispersion.

Nephi, the son of Lehi, also beheld in vision the scattering of the
covenant people of God, and on this point added his testimony to that
of his prophet-father. He saw also that the seed of his brethren,
subsequently known as the Lamanites, were to be chastened for their
unbelief, and that they were destined to become subject to the
Gentiles, and to be scattered before them. Down the prophetic vista of
years, he saw also the bringing forth of sacred records, other than
those then known, "unto the convincing of the Gentiles, and the remnant
of the seed of my brethren, and also the Jews who were scattered upon
all the face of the earth."

After their arrival on the promised land, the colony led by Lehi
received further information regarding the dispersion of Israel. The
prophet Zenos, quoted by Nephi, had predicted the unbelief of the house
of Israel, in consequence of which these covenant ones of God were to
"wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a by-word, and
be hated among all nations."

The brothers of Nephi, skeptical in regard to these teachings, asked
whether the things of which he spake were to come to pass in a
spiritual sense, or more literally; and were informed that "the house
of Israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of
the earth, and also among all nations"; and further, in reference to
dispersions then already accomplished, that "the more part of all the
tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the
isles of the sea"; and then, by way of prediction concerning further
division and separation, Nephi adds that the Gentiles shall be given
power over the people of Israel, "and by them shall our seed be
scattered."

The day of deliverance for Israel is near at hand; the restoration of
the ancient Kingdom of Judah, and of the remnants of all the tribes
distributed throughout the earth, as well as bringing forth from their
long exile the tribes that have been lost, are particularly specified
as events of the current dispensation, directly precedent to the second
advent of the Christ.



-- 44 --

THE GATHERING OF THE TRIBES

Judah and Israel to Come Into Their Own

WE believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration
of the Ten Tribes, etc. (Articles of Faith, No. 10).

As complete as was the scattering, so shall the gathering of Israel
be. Great as has been the chastisement of the covenant though recreant
people, all through their centuries of suffering they have been
sustained by the Divine promise of recovery and rehabilitation. Though
despised of men, a large part of them gone from the knowledge of the
world, the people of Israel are not lost to their God, who knows
whither they have been led or driven. Note the paternal affection, in
which appears commiseration for the plight into which they had brought
themselves through sin: "And yet for all that, when they be in the land
of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them,
to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am
the Lord their God." (Lev. 26:44; see also Deut. 4:26-31).

Isaiah thus forcefully proclaims the purposes of God to be fulfilled
in the last, the current, age: "And it shall come to pass in that day,
that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the
remnant of his people, which shall be left. . . . And he shall set up
an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth." (Isa. 11:11-12).

So momentous shall be the assembling of the tribes in their respective
places of gathering, that the event shall be held to surpass the
deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, for thus hath the Lord
spoken: "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it
shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children
of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But The Lord liveth, that brought
up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the
lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into
their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many
fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I
send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain,
and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks." (Jer.
16:14-16).

To these Biblical citations let us add the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ, given to His Apostles just prior to His death and specified as
one of the signs to precede His later coming: "And he shall send his
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together
his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
(Matt. 24:31).

Two gathering centers are distinctively mentioned, and the maintenance
of a separate autonomy for the ancient kingdoms of Judah and Israel
is repeatedly affirmed in Scripture, with Jerusalem and Zion as the
respective capitals. In the light of modern revelation by which many
ancient passages are illumined and made clear, we hold that the
Jerusalem of Judea is to be rebuilt by the reassembled house of Judah,
and that Zion is to be built up on the American continent by the
gathered hosts of Israel, other than the Jews. When such shall have
been accomplished, Christ shall personally rule in the earth, and then
shall be realized the glad fulfilment: "For out of Zion shall go forth
the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isa. 2:3; see also
Joel 3:16; Zeph. 3:14).

Book of Mormon prophecies are plain in defining the extent and
purpose of the latter-day gathering. Be it remembered that it was the
people who once constituted the kingdom of Judah, the Jews, not the
entire house of Israel, who rejected Jesus as the Son of God and the
foreappointed Redeemer. By the Nephites who dwelt on the American
continent, an Israelitish branch, He was received and worshipped as
the Christ (see Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11); and the tenor of Book of
Mormon Scriptures warrants the inference that He was accepted by the
Lost Tribes, to whom He went to minister in person after His several
visitations in the resurrected state to the Nephites. (See 3 Nephi
15:15 and 16:1-3; compare 2 Nephi 29:12-13).

The rehabilitation of the Jewish nation is assured, and the prominent
part to be taken in that work by Gentile nations is defined in
prophecy. So spake Jehovah through His prophet Nephi:

"But behold, thus saith the Lord God: When the day cometh that they
shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with
their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth,
unto the lands of their inheritance. And it shall come to pass that
they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of
the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the
Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them
forth to the lands of their inheritance. Yea, the kings of the Gentiles
shall be nursing fathers unto them, and their queens shall become
nursing mothers; wherefore, the promises of the Lord are great unto the
Gentiles, for he hath spoken it, and who can dispute?" (Book of Mormon
2 Nephi 10:7-9; see also 25:15-17).

The work of gathering is well under way; and among the far-reaching
results of the World War is the participation of the Gentile nations
in providing for the reassembling of Israel. It is the privilege of
the Gentiles to assist in the gathering of the Jews on the Eastern,
and the other branches of Israel on the Western Continent; and so far
as they shall accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Gentiles shall be
numbered with the covenant people and share with them the plenitude
of blessings, in their own right, for, verily, God is no respecter of
persons.



-- 45 --

AMERICA THE LAND OF ZION

The Place of the New Jerusalem

WE believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration
of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be built upon this [the American]
continent; etc. (Articles of Faith, No. 10).

The Holy Bible makes frequent mention of Zion and Jerusalem with the
context showing that the terms are used interchangeably if not as
precise synonyms. This application of different names to the same place
is justified by the fact that within the walls of the Jerusalem of old
was a hill specifically called Mount Zion, and by contraction, Zion.

But the two names appear in other Biblical passages with distinctive
meaning, indicating different places, and expressive of contrast
instead of identity. For example, consider the prophecy voiced by
Isaiah relating to a time yet future: "Oh Zion that bringest good
tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest
good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength: lift it up, be not
afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God." (Isa. 40:9).

The same prophet refers to a Zion of the last days in which the
righteous shall be safeguarded, this to be in a mountainous land, with
the "munitions of rocks" as a defense; and he particularly states that
the land is very far off. (See Isa. 33: 14-17).

More definite than Bible prophecies, however, are the predictions
relating to the latter-day Zion made by prophets who ministered on
the American continent many centuries prior to the rediscovery of the
New World by Columbus. In the Book of Mormon the names Zion and New
Jerusalem are used with allied meaning and sometimes synonymously.

Near the beginning of the sixth century before Christ's birth, Ether,
a Jaredite prophet, compiled the history of his people from the time
of their coming to America soon after the dispersion from Babel.
Even before they had crossed the ocean, the sanctity of the Western
Continent as a foreappointed land for people who would observe the
laws of righteousness was made known to the Jaredites. In a summary of
Ether's record, Moroni the Nephite who lived a thousand years after the
extinction of the Jaredites, says of the latter:

"And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea
in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto
the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the
Lord God had preserved for a righteous people. And he had sworn in his
wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of
promise from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the
true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his
wrath should come upon them. . . . For behold this is a land which is
choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall
serve God, or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of
God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of
the land, that they are swept off." (Book of Mormon, Ether 2:7-10).

The inspired admonition of these ancient prophets to the inhabitants
of America today, that they observe and uphold the principles of
righteousness, which embody just government and true liberty under
equitable laws, may profitably be taken to heart by people of all
conditions and degrees.

America is the Land of Zion, and as the people of this continent render
allegiance to the God of Israel who is verily the God of all mankind,
the land shall be sacred to liberty as the inheritance of the house of
Israel. In it the Gentiles shall be potent, and shall be numbered with
Israel according to their deserts. To the Nephites the Lord gave this
far-reaching and blessed promise.

"But behold, this land, saith God, shall be a land of thine
inheritance, and the Gentiles shall be blessed upon the land. And this
land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be
no kings upon the land, who shall raise up unto the Gentiles. And I
will fortify this land against all other nations. And he that fighteth
against Zion shall perish, saith God; for he that raiseth up a king
against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be
their king, and I will be a light unto them for ever, that hear my
words." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 10:10-14).

Zion is to be established on this continent, and as the word of modern
revelation avers, in the western part of the United States (See D&C
45:64-71; 57:1-5). The time of the blessed consummation is conditioned
by the fitness of the people. Hither shall come the hosts of scattered
Israel, and the Lost Tribes from their long obscurity. Here shall yet
be built the City of the Lord, Zion, the New Jerusalem, which in time
shall be made one with the "Holy City," which the Revelator saw "coming
down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband." (Rev. 21:2).

Holy Scriptures, of both ancient and latter days, aver that the Lost
Tribes of Israel shall be brought forth from the place whereunto the
Lord has led them, and shall figure in the general gathering incident
to the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. Touching this feature of
the Divine purpose in the time of restoration, we are told:

"And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance
before the Lord, and their prophets shall hear his voice and shall
no longer stay themselves, and they shall smite the rocks, and the
ice shall flow down at their presence. And an highway shall be cast
up in the midst of the great deep. Their enemies shall become a prey
unto them, And in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools of
living water; and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land.
And they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children
of Ephraim my servants. And the boundaries of the everlasting hills
shall tremble at their presence. And there shall they fall down and be
crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the
Lord, even the children of Ephraim; and they shall be filled with songs
of everlasting joy. Behold, this is the blessing of the everlasting God
upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of
Ephraim and his fellows." (D&C 133:26-34).



-- 46 --

THE COMING OF THE LORD

The Consummation of the Ages

WE believe . . . that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; etc.
(Articles of Faith, No. 10).

"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11). So spake
the white-robed angels to the Apostles as the resurrected Christ
ascended from their midst on Mount Olivet. The assertion is definite,
unambiguous, easy to comprehend. Jesus the Christ is to return to earth
"in like manner" as He went, therefore as a material Being, a living
Personage, having a tangible immortalized body of flesh and bones.

The actuality of the Lord's future advent is attested by the utterances
of holy prophets both before and since the brief period of His ministry
in the flesh, and by His own unequivocal avowal. Consider the following:

"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."
(Matt. 16:27).

"For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the
Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his
Father's, and of the holy angels." (Luke 9:26; compare Mark 8:38).

The Master had so effectively instructed the Apostles concerning His
assured death and His later return to earth in power and glory, that
they eagerly inquired as to the time and signs of His coming. (See
Matt. chap. 24). Though they failed to comprehend the full import of
His reply, He told them that many great developments would intervene
between His departure and return; but as to the certainty of His advent
as Judge, and Lord, and King, Jesus left no excuse for dubiety in their
minds. Throughout the apostolic period the Lord's coming was preached
with the emphasis of inspired and convicting testimony.

Book of Mormon prophecies concerning the great event are no whit less
explicit. To the Nephites the resurrected Christ preached the Gospel
of salvation; "And He did expound all things, even from the beginning
until the time that He should come in His glory." (Book of Mormon, 3
Nephi 26:3).

Questions of supreme import to every one of us are these: (1) When will
Christ come? (2) What shall be the purpose and attendant conditions of
His coming?

The date of the Lord's advent has never been revealed to man, nor shall
it be. Prior to His resurrection Jesus Himself did not know it, as
witness His words: "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no,
not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."
(Mark 13:32).

In the present age the Father hath declared: "And they have done unto
the Son of Man even as they listed; and He has taken His power on the
right hand of His glory, and now reigneth in the heavens, and will
reign till He descends on the earth to put all enemies under His feet,
which time is nigh at hand. I, the Lord God, have spoken it, but the
hour and the day no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor
shall they know until He comes." (D&C 49:6-7).

In the light of such scriptural affirmations we may dismiss as empty
conjecture all alleged determinations as to the precise time of the
Lord's appearing. Nevertheless, the specified signs and conditions by
which is shown the imminence of the event are definite, and from these
we know that the great day of the Lord is very near. So near is the
consummation that the intervening period is called "today"; and on the
morrow mankind shall rejoice or tremble at the presence of the Lord.
(See Doctrines and Covenants 64:23-25).

Christ's advent shall be made with the accompaniment of power and great
glory. While in suddenness and unexpectedness to the unobserving it
shall be comparable to the coming of a thief in the night, it shall
be a manifestation of surpassing glory to all the world: "For as the
lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so
shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. 24:27).

With the Lord's appearing a general resurrection of the righteous dead
shall be effected, and many then in the flesh shall be changed from
the mortal to the immortal state without the intervening experience
of prolonged disembodiment or the sleep of the grave. (See 1 Thess.
4:14-17).

"And the face of the Lord shall be unveiled; And the saints that are
upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened, and be caught up to
meet Him. And they who have slept in their graves shall come forth; for
their graves shall be opened, and they also shall be caught up to meet
Him in the midst of the pillar of heaven." (D&C 88:95-97).

Then shall be established the era of peace, the predicted Millennium,
in which Christ shall dwell with men, and shall rule in the earth as
Lord and King.



-- 47 --

THE FEDERATION OF THE WORLD

A Thousand Years of Peace

WE believe . . . that Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and
that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
(Articles of Faith, No. 10).

Through the lurid gloom of smoke and fire in which the nations have
been enshrouded, amidst the awful stench of blood that has sickened
the world, mankind has had reason to rejoice in the enlightening beams
of comforting assurance that an era of peace is to be established. And
this shall be a peace that cannot be broken, for righteousness shall
rule, and man's birthright to liberty shall be inviolate.

Of necessity this blessed state shall be attained only after due
preparation; for in the economy of God it would be as incongruous
to force upon mankind an unappreciated and undesired boon as to
arbitrarily afflict with an undeserved curse.

The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign personally upon the
earth is near at hand, for the Scriptures so attest. Prophecies
relating to this impending event specify a period of a thousand years,
distinctively known as the Millennium, which in certain conditions
shall differ from both preceding and succeeding time. While this
period is nowise indicative of a limitation to the Lord's dominion, it
specifies the duration of a particular part of His ministry, even as
the epoch of His administration in the flesh is measurable in terms of
years and days.

Unto righteous Enoch, who walked with God and was taken bodily from the
earth (Gen. 5:24; Heb. 11:5), the certainty of the millennial reign was
revealed over thirty centuries before the Lord's birth in mortality,
as is thus recorded: "And it came to pass that Enoch saw the day of
the coming of the Son of Man, in the last days, to dwell on the earth
in righteousness for the space of a thousand years." (Pearl of Great
Price, p. 45).

In glorious vision John, the apostle and revelator, foresaw Christ's
personal reign, during which Satan is to be bound:

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto
them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of
Jesus and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast,
neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads,
or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand
years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand
years were finished." (Rev. 20:4, 5; see also verse 2).

The Millennium is to be a Sabbatical era, when the earth shall rest;
and men, relieved from the tyranny of Satan, shall, if they will, live
in righteousness and peace. Man, to whom was given dominion over the
earth and its creatures, shall rule by love, for enmity between him
and the brute creation shall cease, and the ferocity and venom of the
beasts shall be done away. So hath the Lord avowed through the prophet
Isaiah. (See Isa. ch. 65).

We are definitely assured that the Millennium is to be inaugurated
by the advent of Christ, and that Satan's power over men shall be
restrained, and further, that after the thousand blessed years are
finished, Satan shall be loosed for a season, and such as elect to
follow him shall eventually go with him to eternal condemnation. See
Rev. 20:7, and consider these words of the Lord Christ spoken in the
current dispensation:

"For in my own due time will I come upon the earth in judgment, and
my people shall be redeemed and shall reign with me on earth. For the
great Millennium, of which I have spoken by the mouth of my servants,
shall come; For Satan shall be bound, and when he is loosed again he
shall only reign for a little season, and then cometh the end of the
earth. . . . Hearken ye to these words; Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the
Savior of the world. Treasure these things up in your hearts, and let
the solemnities of eternity rest upon your minds." (D&C 43: 29-34).

The following revelation is equally specific:

"For I will reveal myself from heaven with power and great glory, with
all the hosts thereof, and dwell in righteousness with men on earth
a thousand years, and the wicked shall not stand. . . . And again,
verily, verily, I say unto you, that when the thousand years are ended,
and men again begin to deny their God, then will I spare the earth but
for a little season; And the end shall come, and the heaven and the
earth shall be consumed and pass away, and there shall be a new heaven
and a new earth." (D&C 29:11, 22, 23).

It is evident from citations given and from all Scripture bearing upon
the subject, that the Millennium is to precede the consummation spoken
of as "the end of the world." In the era of peace both mortal and
immortalized beings will tenant the earth; and though sin will not be
wholly abolished nor death banished, the powers of righteousness shall
be dominant. Though Satan shall afterward regain a measure of power
over mankind, his time will be short and the earth shall eventually
be restored to its paradisiacal glory, and become a fit abode for the
glorified children of our God and His Christ.



-- 48 --

THY KINGDOM COME!

So Pray We Yet

"OUR Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come."

Thus did the Master teach His disciples to pray; and the injunction has
never been abrogated. The passing of the centuries has demonstrated the
need of ever increasing fervency in the supplication Thy kingdom come!

But if this petition be anything more than words, it implies a
conviction on the part of the supplicant that the kingdom specified
has not yet been established on the earth, and that it will be set up
in due time. And, if there is to be a kingdom, there must needs be a
living, reigning King.

In the Gospel according to Matthew the phrase "kingdom of heaven"
repeatedly occurs; while in the writings of the other evangelists and
throughout the epistles, the corresponding expression is "kingdom of
God," "kingdom of Christ," or simply "kingdom." In many instances these
designations are used with the same meaning, though a distinction is
apparent in others. The several scriptural usages of the terms comprise:

1. A signification practically identical with that of "The Church of
Jesus Christ."

2. The designation of the literal kingdom, material and spiritual, over
which Christ the Lord shall rule by personal ministration in days yet
future.

Under the first conception, the "kingdom" of scriptural mention has
been already established as an organization among men, and is today in
a state of war against sin, with its powers and resources mobilized
in defense of freedom of worship and for the salvation of the race.
Plainly, when we speak of the Church as the Kingdom we refer to an
institution already extant on the earth, not one that is yet to come.

The Church of Jesus Christ asserts no right of control in the
government of nations; and its jurisdiction in temporal affairs is
limited to matters of organization and discipline within itself, such
as are essential to the maintenance and perpetuity of any community
body.

The Kingdom of God and the Church of Christ are virtually synonymous
terms. We do not pray that this organization shall come; for it is
now existent. We pray and strive for its growth and development, for
the spread of its saving principles, and for their acceptance by all
mankind. But the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than the Church as the
latter exists today, and when fully established will be seen to be a
development thereof. Its advent is yet to be prayed for.

This relationship is made clear through a revelation given to the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1831:

"Hearken, and lo, a voice as of one from on high, who is mighty and
powerful, whose going forth is unto the ends of the earth, yea, whose
voice is unto men--Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths
straight. The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on
the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends
of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without
hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth. . . . Call
upon the Lord, that his kingdom may go forth upon the earth, that the
inhabitants thereof may receive it, and be prepared for the days to
come, in the which the Son of Man shall come down in heaven, clothed in
the brightness of his glory, to meet the kingdom of God which is set
up on the earth. Wherefore may the kingdom of God go forth, that the
kingdom of heaven may come, that thou, O God, mayest be glorified in
heaven so on earth, that thy enemies may be subdued; for thine is the
honour, power and glory, for ever and ever. Amen." (D&C, Sec. 65).

When the Messiah comes to rule and reign, He will be accompanied by
the hosts of the righteous who have already passed through the change
of death; and the righteous who are yet in the flesh shall be caught
up to meet Him, and shall descend with Him as partakers of His glory.
Then shall the Kingdom of God on earth be made one with the Kingdom of
Heaven. Then shall be realized the glorious fulfilment of the prayer
taught by the Christ, and voiced by men through the ages past, Thy
Kingdom come.

The Kingdom of Heaven on earth is to be a literal government,
administered under the supreme direction of Jesus Christ the King. No
longer shall men arrogate to themselves the power of might to exercise
dominion over their fellows, nor exalt themselves on thrones, nor
bedeck themselves with crowns and scepters.

That the extent and jurisdiction of the kingdom shall be world-wide was
declared by Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, depicting "what shall be in the
latter days." Thus spake the prophet:

"And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a
kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all
these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest
that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it
brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the
gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass
hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof
sure." (Dan. 2:44-45; see also verse 28).



-- 49 --

FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD

Man's Divine Birthright

WE claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the
dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege,
let them worship how, where, or what they may. (Articles of Faith, 11).

The derivation of the word "worship" is significant. It is the lineal
descendant of a pair of Anglo-Saxon terms--weorth meaning "worthy," and
scipe, an ancient form of the termination "snip" signifying condition
or state. The combination as perpetuated in our expression "worship"
means worthy-ship, and connotes the attribute of worthiness on the part
of the object of adoration.

Man cannot intelligently worship in ignorance; and this basal fact is
supported and strengthened by the inspired affirmation of a modern
prophet: "It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance." (D&C
131:6).

The devout worshiper must have some conception of the ennobling or
emulatory character of his deity, whether that deity be an idol made
with hands or the true and living God, the Creator of the heavens and
the earth. Worship to be genuine, to be what the word implies, must be
voluntary, willing, soulful homage. It is typified by actual praying as
contrasted with the formality of saying one's prayers.

Worship is no matter of mere form; it consists not of posture nor
gesture, neither of ritual nor of creed--any more than prayer consists
of words. Under compulsion, or for the hypocritical purposes of
effect, one may mechanically perform all the outward ceremonies of an
established style of adoration, yet, without sincerity his effort is
but a mockery of worship.

Worship, then, is a matter of conscience, and as such its observance
is one of man's inalienable rights. Freedom in worship is part of
the Divine birthright of the race; and, as a natural consequence, no
earthly power can justly interfere therewith so long as its exercise
involves no trespass upon individual or community rights.

The Latter-day Saints accept as divinely inspired the constitutional
provision by which religious liberty is professedly guarded--that no
law shall ever be made "respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof"; and we confidently believe
that with the spread of enlightenment throughout the world, a similar
guaranty will be established in every nation.

Religious intolerance is inconsistent with democratic government;
yet this species of prejudice is manifest even amongst the most
progressive nations of the age. Zeal ofttimes breeds indiscretion and
injustice. It is easy for one who believes that he has the truth to
become uncharitable toward those who will not or cannot see as he sees.
We find simple explanation of the fact that the early followers of
Christ, zealous for the new faith into which they had been baptized,
should look with disdain upon their fellows still groping in spiritual
darkness. Even John, who has come to be known as the Apostle of Love,
became on more than one occasion intolerant and resentful toward
unbelievers. He and his brother were incensed at the Samaritans'
rejection of the Lord, and would fain have called fire from heaven to
consume the offenders; but this vengeful desire was met by Jesus with
incisive rebuke, as thus expressed:

"Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not
come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." (Luke 9:51-56; see also
Mark 9:38-41; compare John 3:17).

Intolerance is unscriptural and un-Christian. Our Lord's teachings are
imbued with the spirit of forbearance and love even toward enemies and
persecutors.

But let us not forget that there is a vital difference between
toleration and acceptance. To assume that because I have respect for
my neighbor's belief I must believe and act as he does would be to
surrender my own rights. To regard all religious systems, all sects and
churches, as essentially of equal worth and worthiness, is to make of
religious profession a matter of mere convenience and conventionality.

I verily believe, with the full force of my soul's conviction, that
there is and can be but one Church of Jesus Christ upon the earth,
possessing the blessings and powers of the Holy Priesthood, with
the authority to administer the ordinances requisite to salvation.
Nevertheless, I can and do admit freely and without reservation the
right of any man to believe that I am wrong; and I hold that neither of
us is justified in assailing the other except by means of persuasion,
demonstration, and testimony.

To preach the doctrines of men as the precepts of Christ, to supplant
the eternal principles of the Gospel by the dogmas of human conception,
is to commit grievous sin and incur fearful culpability. Christ and His
apostles gave solemn and repeated warning against the heresies of false
teachers. Thus wrote Paul to the Galatians:

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As
we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." (Gal. 1:8-9).

Some have thought to find in this and cognate Scriptures an excuse
for intolerance, and even for persecution. But is it otherwise than
consistent with justice and reason to hold that any man who preaches
his own doctrines or those of other men under the name of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ stands convicted of blasphemy, and deserving of the curse
of God? The Apostle cited above left no doubt as to the genuineness of
the Gospel he so vigorously defended, as witness the following:

"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of
me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I
taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Each of us may accept or reject the message of eternal life, the Gospel
of Jesus Christ; and by all reason and consistency each shall garner
the fruitage of his choice.



-- 50 --

THE LAW OF THE LAND

Should We Submit to It?

WE believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and
magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. (Articles of
Faith, 12).

Religion is essentially a matter of every-day life. It has as much to
do with the adjustment of the individual to his material environment as
with his abstract belief in matters spiritual. A man's religion should
be a concrete demonstration of his conceptions concerning God and the
Divine purposes respecting himself and his fellows. Anything less lacks
both the form of godliness and the power thereof.

The Master associated love for God with love for fellowman; and surely
love comprises duty, and duty means effort and action. See Matt.
22:35-40. A very large part of the course of education provided in the
school of mortality is attained through association with our kind and
the righteous observance of duty in community life. We are not here to
be recluses nor to hold ourselves aloof from public service, but to
live in a state of mutual helpfulness and effective cooperation.

It is a fundamental necessity that laws shall be established among men
for general governance; and obedience to law is the obvious duty of
every member of organized society. Violation of the law, therefore,
is not only a secular offense but a transgression of the principles
of true religion. This world would be a happier one if men carried
more religion into their daily affairs--into business, politics, and
statesmanship. Mark you, I say religion, not church. Under existing
conditions it is imperative that State and Church be kept separate; and
this segregation must be maintained until the inauguration of Christ's
personal reign.

Loyal citizenship is at once a characteristic and a test of a man's
religion; and as to the incumbent duties of citizenship, the voice
of the people, as expressed through the established channels of
government, must determine.

Obedience to secular authority is enjoined by Scripture; and the Lord
Christ exemplified the principle in His own life, even to the extent
of meeting a demand that could have been legally challenged. When the
tax collector called for tribute money, the following instructive
colloquy occurred between Jesus and Peter: "What thinkest thou, Simon,
of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own
children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus
saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we
should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up
the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth thou
shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and
thee." (Matt. 17:25-27. For a discussion of this incident and lessons
associated therewith see the writer's work "Jesus the Christ").

On another occasion a treacherous snare was laid to make Christ appear
as an offender against the Roman power. Certain wicked Pharisees sought
to entangle Him by the question: "What thinkest thou? Is it lawful
to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?" The Lord's reply was a telling
lesson in the matter of submission to the law. "Shew me the tribute
money," said He, "And they brought unto Him a penny. And He saith
unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto Him,
Caesar's. Then saith He unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the
things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."
(Matt. 22:15-21).

The Apostles made it clear that respect for the law and its officers
was a part of the religious duty of the saints. In writing to Titus,
who was in charge of the Church at Crete, Paul thus admonished him to
teach his flock to be orderly and law-abiding: "Put them in mind to be
subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready
to every good work." (Titus 3:1).

To the saints in Rome the same Apostle wrote, emphasizing their
duty toward the civil power, pointing out the necessity of secular
government, and designating the officers of the law as ministers of God:

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no
power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they
that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a
terror to good works, but to the evil. . . . For for this cause pay ye
tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon
this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom
tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to
whom honour." (Rom. 13:1-7).

To the same effect the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ has come to the
Church in this age. Thus spake He in 1831:

"Let no man break the laws of the land, for he that keepeth the laws of
God hath no need to break the laws of the land: Wherefore, be subject
to the powers that be, until He reigns whose right it is to reign, and
subdues all enemies under His feet." And the distinction between the
laws of the Church and the laws of the nation is emphasized in the
further word: "Behold, the laws which ye have received from my hand are
the laws of the church, and in this light ye shall hold them forth."
(D&C 58:21-23).

Loyal and whole-souled support of the government, service to country,
and devotion to the interests of the nation, are requirements of the
religion embodied in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



-- 51 --

CHURCH AND STATE

Independent But Mutually Helpful

THE teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
concerning the duty of its members, and of all men, in relation to the
secular law, are set forth in Section 134 of the D&C, which is one
of the standard works of the Church. This is part of the law of the
Church, and has been adopted as a guide in faith and practise by the
members in general conference assembled.

Of Governments and Laws in General

"1. We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit
of man, and that He holds men accountable for their acts in relation
to them, either in making laws or administering them, for the good and
safety of society.

"2. We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws
are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the
free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the
protection of life.

"3. We believe that all governments necessarily require civil officers
and magistrates to enforce the laws of the same, and that such as will
administer the law in equity and justice should be sought for and
upheld by the voice of the people (if a republic), or the will of the
sovereign.

"4. We believe that religion is instituted of God, and that men are
amenable to Him, and to Him only, for the exercise of it, unless
their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and
liberties of others; but we do not believe that human law has a right
to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of
men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil
magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should
punish guilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul.

"5. We believe that all men are bound to sustain and uphold the
respective governments in which they reside, while protected in their
inherent and inalienable rights by the laws of such governments;
and that sedition and rebellion are unbecoming every citizen thus
protected, and should be punished accordingly; and that all governments
have a right to enact such laws as in their own judgment are best
calculated to secure the public interest, at the same time, however,
holding sacred the freedom of conscience.

"6. We believe that every man should be honored in his station:
rulers and magistrates as such, being placed for the protection of
the innocent and the punishment of the guilty; and that to the laws,
all men owe respect and deference, as without them peace and harmony
would be supplanted by anarchy and terror; human laws being instituted
for the express purpose of regulating our interests as individuals
and nations, between man and man, and Divine laws given of heaven,
prescribing rules on spiritual concerns, for faith and worship, both to
be answered by man to his Maker.

"7. We believe that rulers, states, and governments have a right, and
are bound to enact laws for the protection of all citizens in the free
exercise of their religious belief; but we do not believe that they
have a right in justice, to deprive citizens of this privilege, or
proscribe them in their opinions, so long as a regard and reverence are
shown to the laws, and such religious opinions do not justify sedition
nor conspiracy.

"8. We believe that the commission of crime should be punished
according to the nature of the offense; that murder, treason, robbery,
theft, and the breach of the general peace, in all respects, should be
punished according to their criminality, and their tendency to evil
among men, by the laws of that government in which the offense is
committed; and for the public peace and tranquillity all men should
step forward and use their ability in bringing offenders against good
laws to punishment.

"9. We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil
government, whereby one religious society is fostered, and another
proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of
its members as citizens, denied.

"10. We believe that all religious societies have a right to deal
with their members for disorderly conduct according to the rules and
regulations of such societies, provided that such dealings be for
fellowship and good standing; but we do not believe that any religious
society has authority to try men on the right of property or life, to
take from them this world's goods, or to put them in jeopardy of either
life or limb, neither to inflict any physical punishment upon them;
they can only excommunicate them from their society, and withdraw from
them their fellowship.

"11. We believe that men should appeal to the civil law for redress
of all wrongs and grievances, where personal abuse is inflicted, or
the right of property or character infringed, where such laws exist as
will protect the same; but we believe that all men are justified in
defending themselves, their friends, and property, and the government,
from the unlawful assaults and encroachments of all persons, in times
of exigency, where immediate appeal cannot be made to the laws, and
relief afforded.

"12. We believe it just to preach the gospel to the nations of the
earth, and warn the righteous to save themselves from the corruption
of the world; but we do not believe it right to interfere with bond
servants, neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them, contrary to
the will and wish of their masters, nor to meddle with or influence
them in the least, to cause them to be dissatisfied with their
situations in this life, thereby jeopardizing the lives of men; such
interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust, and dangerous to
the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in
servitude."



-- 52 --

RELIGION OF DAILY LIFE

A Practical Test

WE believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in
doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition
of Paul--we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured
many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is
anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praise-worthy, we seek
after these things. (Articles of Faith, 13).

In this brief statement the Latter-day Saints proclaim the practical
character of their religion--a religion that embraces not alone
definite conceptions of spiritual matters and belief as to conditions
in the hereafter, doctrines of original sin and the actuality of heaven
and hell, but also and more particularly of present, current, every-day
duties, in which self-respect, love for fellow-men, and devotion to God
are the guiding principles.

Religion without personal morality, professions of godliness without
charity, church membership without consistent conduct in the common
affairs of life are but as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals--noise
without music, the words of prayer without the spirit.

"If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his
tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure
religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself
unspotted from the world." (James 1:26, 27).

A good test of a man's religion is its utility. Religious profession
used as a cloak--and that too often reserved for Sunday wear, hiding
in part the shabby rags of sin--is but sacrilege. In any attempt to
analyze a religious system or creed it is pertinent to examine the
results of its operation in the lives of its adherents. This is as
simple and fair as to judge a tree by the quality of its substance and
fruit. Altruism is an essential ingredient of a religion that is worth
while.

"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he
that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom
he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who
loveth God love his brother also." (1 John 4:20, 21).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invites attention
to its work of unselfish, practical, unremitting benevolence. In
missionary service the Church has been active since the date of its
organization; and this systematic labor, because of its extent and
unique methods, has attracted attention and stimulated comment in
practically all nations of the earth. Actuated by a genuine love for
humanity and the desire to obey the Divine command respecting such,
the Church sends out every year hundreds of missionaries to proclaim
its message to the world. These devoted servants comprise men and
women called from all vocations, who serve without salary or any other
form of material remuneration. Furthermore, they pay their own way in
traveling to their appointed fields of labor and while serving therein,
except so far as they may receive assistance from those who become
interested in their work.

A desire common to young Latter-day Saints is to so live that they
shall be found worthy to be called into service to spend a period of
years, generally from two to four, as traveling ministers of the Gospel
of Christ. They offer their message without money or price, carrying
it to the doors in city and country, distributing literature, inviting
conversation, but never forcing themselves upon unwilling hearers.
Who can consistently affirm that such faithful servants as these are
insincere or devoid of that love for fellow-men without which genuine
love of God is impossible?

The benevolence that manifests itself in material giving is impressed
as a duty upon members of the Church, and while every one is taught to
assist the needy by individual effort, a system of orderly contribution
and distribution is maintained. In each Ward and Branch of the Church
an organization of women known as the Relief Society is operative. Its
particular function is that of caring for the needy and the afflicted,
without exclusive distinction as to whether the subjects of their
ministration are members of the Church or not. The Relief Society
receives contributions of money, clothing, food and other commodities
and distributes these as occasion requires, beside maintaining a
system of visitation to the needy, giving aid in nursing, comfort in
bereavement, and relief from distress in every way possible.

The Church teaches the efficacy of prudent fasting, moderate abstinence
from food at stated times, as an accessory to prayer; and the first
Sunday of each month is observed as a fast-day. On that day the people
are invited to meet for special devotional service, and by common
consent and custom they contribute at least the equivalent of the meals
omitted through the fasting of the family. These offerings are received
by the local officers and are distributed under their direction to
the worthy poor. If there be a surplus in any Ward it is applied to
the needs of other Wards in which the proportion of dependent poor is
greater.

By these and other methods, including the tithing system to be
considered later, are the Latter-day Saints taught to give of
their substance for worthy purposes, and in such a way as to avoid
indiscriminate charity whereby perchance unworthy dependency would be
fostered. We believe that the harmony of our prayers will become a
discord if the cry of the deserving poor accompany our supplications to
the throne of Grace.



-- 53 --

AMERICA THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY

No King to Rule in the Land

THE commanding position of the United States among the world powers,
and the prominent place the American nation is to maintain as the
exponent and champion of human rights, were foreseen and predicted
centuries before the beginning of the Christian Era. Such is the Book
of Mormon record.

The prophet Nephi was one of the original company, who, under the
leadership of his father Lehi, left Jerusalem in the year 600 B. C.,
and journeyed to the Arabian shore, thence voyaging to the American
continent in a vessel they had constructed as, centuries earlier, Noah
had built an ark under Divine guidance.

In the early stages of the exodus, while the travelers were journeying
seaward through the deserts of Arabia, the Lord revealed unto Nephi
that a part of the posterity of his brethren would be smitten by
the righteous wrath of God; and it was specifically shown that the
nation into which the little company was to develop would be isolated
beyond the seas from all other peoples. Thus runs the account of the
revelation to Nephi the prophet, the events being chronicled in the
past tense as though already accomplished:

"And it came to pass that I looked and beheld many waters; and they
divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren. And it came to pass
that the angel said unto me, Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed
of thy brethren. And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles who
was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and
I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the
man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my
brethren, who were in the promised land." (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi
13:10-12).

Lehi and his people were Hebrews; all other nations are designated
in the Book of Mormon as Gentiles. As later parts of the record make
plain, "the promised land" is the continent of America. The "man among
the Gentiles," who was to come across the many waters and discover the
descendants of Nephi's brethren upon whom the wrath of God had fallen,
was Christopher Columbus whose mission was as surely foreappointed as
was that of any prophet. Then follows the prediction of the migration
of the Pilgrim Fathers, who are described as "other Gentiles" going
forth out of captivity; while the subsequent occupation of the land
by multitudes of the Gentiles who would prosper as a nation and would
subjugate the Indians is impressively set forth. The struggle of the
American colonies for independence was foretold, and the assurance that
the power of God would be exercised to give them victory over "their
mother Gentiles", or the British nation, was inscribed on enduring
metal before the existence of the western world had found place even in
the dreams of mankind.

Thus runs the ancient record: "And it came to pass that I, Nephi,
beheld that the Gentiles who had gone forth out of captivity, did
humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with
them; And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together
upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them. And
I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath
of God was upon all those that were gathered together against them to
battle. And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of
captivity, were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all
other nations." (1 Nephi 13:16-19).

In the economy of God, America, which is veritably the land of Zion,
was aforetime consecrated as the home of a free and independent
nation. It is the divinely assured inheritance of the "House of
Israel"; and people of all nationalities who will abide by the laws
of righteousness, which embody the principles of true liberty, may
become by adoption members of the House of Israel. For a wise purpose
this promised land, the American continent, was long kept from the
knowledge of men; and the hand of the Lord has been potent in directing
its discovery and in the establishment of the nation of promise and
destiny thereon. Nephite prophets reiterated this solemn assurance, and
proclaimed as the will and purpose of God that the government of the
land should be a government of the people and not the tyranny of kings.

Lehi was explicit in avowal of the Lord's purpose in consecrating
America as the home of free men, on conditions of righteousness:
"Wherefore I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit
which is in me, that there shall none come into this land, save they
shall be brought by the hand of the Lord. Wherefore, this land is
consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they
shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it
shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be
brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity;
for if iniquity shall abound, cursed shall be the land for their sakes;
but unto the righteous it shall be blessed for ever. And behold, it is
wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other
nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there
would be no place for an inheritance." (2 Nephi 1:6-8).



-- 54 --

DEMOCRACY OF AMERICAN ORIGIN

The Founding of an Ancient Republic

Democracy is indigenous to America.

One of the earliest recorded experiments of representative government
by the people was undertaken on the Western Continent; and it was a
success.

These statements are not made with reference to the establishment of
the United States of America as a free and independent nation, but to
events that antedated by nearly a century the birth of Christ.

At that time North America was inhabited by two great peoples, the
Nephites and the Lamanites, each named after an early leader, and both
originally of one family stock. Except for brief periods of comparative
peace the two nations lived in a state of hostility due to Lamanite
aggression.

The Nephites were progressive, cultured, and of peaceful desires, while
the Lamanites became degenerate, dark-skinned and barbarous. Eventually
the Nephite nation was destroyed by its savage foes; the Lamanites
persisted and are represented today by their direct descendants, the
American Indians.

For five centuries prior to the events now under consideration each
nation had been governed by a succession of kings. The Lamanite rulers
exercised autocratic sway and relied upon physical force for their
power. Some of the Nephite monarchs were almost as bad, though many
were notably considerate and just.

The last of the Nephite sovereigns was Mosiah; he died 91 B. C. after
a righteous reign of thirty-three years. King in name, he called his
people brethren and counted himself their trusted and presiding servant.

A short time before his death Mosiah called for an expression from his
people as to whom they desired to succeed him on the throne. There was
a united answer; the people wanted the king's son, to whom it was said
"the kingdom doth rightly belong." But Aaron, the people's choice,
declined the crown, as did his brothers in turn; for all these sons of
Mosiah were devoted to the preaching of the Gospel and esteemed the
labors of the ministry above the royal estate.

Mosiah seized the opportunity occasioned by the people's loyalty
and unity to awaken them to the fact that the powers of government
were inherent within themselves, and to urge them to exercise their
sovereign rights and assume the privileges and responsibilities of
self-rule. He recommended that they abolish the monarchy and establish
a Republic according to "the voice of the people."

In a stirring proclamation he set forth the potential dangers of
kingly rule and admonished the nation to guard its liberty as a sacred
possession, and to delegate the governing power to officers of its own
choosing, whom he called judges, who should be elected by popular vote,
and who could be impeached if charged with iniquitous exercise of power
and be removed if found unworthy. King Mosiah summarized in a masterly
way the fundamentals of true democracy. After reciting the wrongs the
people had suffered under monarchical oppression, he continued in this
wise:

"Therefore choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye
may be judged according to the laws which have been given you by our
fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of
the Lord.

"Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything
contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part
of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall
ye observe, and make it your law to do your business by the voice of
the people.

"And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose
iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon
you, yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction
even as he has hitherto visited this land.

"And now if ye have judges, and they do not judge you according to the
law which has been given, ye can cause that they may be judged of a
higher judge.

"If your higher judges do not judge righteous judgments, ye shall cause
that a small number of your lower judges should be gathered together,
and they shall judge your higher judges, according to the voice of the
people.

"And I command you to do these things in the fear of the Lord: and I
command you to do these things, and that ye have no king. . . .

"And now I desire that this inequality should be no more in this land,
especially among this my people; but I desire that this land be a land
of liberty, and every man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike."
(Book of Mormon, Mosiah 29.)

The affairs of government were to be the concern of the whole
commonwealth; for, as the king proclaimed with convincing plainness,
"the burden should come upon all the people, that every man might bear
his part." It is gratifying to know that the Nephites adopted the
proposition, straightway set about creating election districts, and at
the appointed time chose by vote the first elective rulers of the new
Republic.

From American soil, which of all was first to be prepared for the
cultivation of representative government by the people, the seed of
democracy shall be carried to every other land, until all men are free,
in accordance with Divine intent.



-- 55 --

PERPETUITY OF AMERICAN NATION

Assured by Prophecy

As late as but a few months prior to that fateful date--August 1,
1914--when the war storm burst in Europe, some of the world's great
ones, eminent in scholarship and leaders of thought, aggressively
proclaimed their belief that a great war was impossible. They held that
the affairs of nations were so intimately related, the interests common
to humanity so closely knit, as to safeguard the world against any such
devastating conflict as would be entailed by the outbreak of war among
great nations with the frightfully efficient enginery of destruction
developed by present-day science. There was neither ambiguity nor
reservation in the academic pronouncement that the human race, in
its course of evolutionary progression, had happily risen above the
barbarous incentive to wholesale murder and ruthless destruction such
as characterized the less cultured epochs of history.

Certain optimistic protagonists averred that if, contrary to their
demonstrated facts and figures, great nations should plunge recklessly
into war, the struggle would of necessity be brief, for the total
wealth of the world was insufficient to maintain for more than a few
weeks at most the waging of war with modern equipment.

Yet in spite of all prognostications, as though derisively flouting the
wisdom of the wise, August 1, 1914, was so deeply crimsoned that the
weathering of ages future will not dull the stain. That day and all the
days since have witnessed the fulfilment of the prediction relating to
the last dispensation, the time in which we live, as voiced by Isaiah:

"Behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even
a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall
perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid." (Isa.
29:14.)

Verily the accumulated wisdom of men has failed us in the time of
need, has failed to forecast and fails to expound the dread happenings
of these eventful times. Where is the master mind that can interpret
the problems of contemporary history, with factors innumerable, with
relations so intricate and differentials so varied that the calculus of
time is inadequate to solve?

Human reasoning unillumined by Divine revelation offers but dark and
insecure refuge from the turmoil of current events. Whither then shall
we look for guidance? Or, must we abandon ourselves to the despairing
conclusion that to the storm-lashed ocean of the ominous present there
is no haven of hope, and to our buffeted bark no anchor of comforting
assurance?

To him who listens in faith there rises even above the roar of
strife, the voice of prophecy citing earlier prediction of events now
materializing in rapid sequence, and telling of the eventual triumph
of righteousness and the vindication of man's right to liberty and
happiness.

The great world conflict was predicted by both ancient and modern
prophets. Joseph Smith, speaking the word of God, told of the imminent
outpouring of war upon all nations, wisdom of the world's wise men
to the contrary notwithstanding. And in these utterances the modern
prophet spake in harmony with the predictions of earlier seers, as did
he also of the promises made concerning America, which is described
as a land choice above all others. Read these words of assurance
given through an ancient Jaredite: "Behold, this is a choice land,
and whatsoever nation shall possess it, shall be free from bondage,
and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven if they
will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been
manifested by the things which we have written." (Book of Mormon, Ether
2:12.)

Furthermore, hearken unto the following with reference to this same
choice land, spoken unto the ancient inhabitants of this continent
through Jacob the Nephite: "But behold, this land, saith God, shall be
a land of thine inheritance, and the Gentiles shall be blessed upon
the land. And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles,
and there shall be no kings upon the land, who shall raise up unto the
Gentiles. And I will fortify this land against all other nations." (2
Nephi 10:10-12.)

We hold that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of
the United States are inspired documents, veritable scriptures of
the nation, framed by men under Divine direction, men specifically
empowered and raised up for this high mission; and that these charters
of liberty constitute a pattern after which the governments of the
nations shall be shaped. Thus shall be fulfilled, in part at least,
the prophecy of the ancient revelator, that out of this land, which
in solemn truth is the land of Zion, shall go forth the law of the
Lord unto the world at large. In the majesty of her high destiny our
Nation has taken a stand as the champion of freedom and human rights.
Her enduring greatness is conditioned only by the righteousness of her
people, who, if they will but serve the God of the land--the God of
Heaven and earth--shall never be subject to alien domination.

It is not written in the book of destiny that America shall bow the
knee to autocracy; but, to the glorious contrary, it is inscribed on
the scroll of the Divine purpose, that this, the land of Zion, shall be
the haven of refuge to the oppressed: "And it shall be said among the
wicked: Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of
Zion are terrible; wherefore we cannot stand. And it shall come to pass
that the righteous shall be gathered out from among all nations, and
shall come to Zion, singing with songs of everlasting joy." (D&C 45:
70-71.)



-- 56 --

LAW OF THE TITHE

The Lord's Revenue System

Payment of tithes was required under the Law of Moses. Indeed, the
early prominence given to this requirement has led to the incorrect
assumption that tithe-paying had its beginning in an Israelitish
statute. Tithing is older than Israel. Abraham paid a tenth part of his
gains to Melchizedek, who was king of Salem and priest of the Most High
God (Gen. 14:20 and Heb. 7:1-8); and Jacob made a covenant to devote to
the Lord's service a tenth of all that would come into his hands. (Gen.
28:22.)

Following the development of the children of Israel into a theocratic
nation, the practise of paying tithes in kind became one of the
features by which they, the worshipers of Jehovah, were distinguished
from all other peoples. The requirement was explicit and its
application general, to rich and poor alike. Thus we read: "And all the
tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of
the tree, is the Lord's: it is holy unto the Lord. . . . And concerning
the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth
under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord." (Lev. 27:30, 32.)

As long as the people faithfully complied with the law of the tithe
they prospered; and when they failed the land was no longer sanctified
to their good. Hezekiah (2 Chron. 31: 5-10) and Nehemiah (Neh.
13:10-13) reproved the people for their negligence in the matter and
awakened them to the jeopardy that threatened; and, later, Malachi
voiced the word of Jehovah in stern rebuke, forceful admonition, and
encouraging promise, relative to the payment of the Lord's tenth:

"Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we
robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for
ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into
the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now
herewith, said the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows
of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room
enough to receive it." (Mal. 3:8-10.)

At the time of our Lord's personal ministry the law had been
supplemented by innumerable rules, comprising unauthorized exactions
often based upon mere trivialities. Christ approved the tithe but made
plain the fact that other duties were none the less imperative. See
Matt. 23:23.

During recent years great interest has been manifest in the matter of
the tithe, among theologians, ministers and intelligent laymen; and the
reestablishment of tithe-paying as a religious duty has been strongly
advocated. It is important to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints has observed this requirement from the early days
of its history--not because it was operative in ancient Israel, nor
because it was law and custom among the Jews in the days of Christ,
but because it has been authoritatively established through modern
revelation in the Church. In 1838 the Lord systematized the practise
upon which the people had voluntarily entered, and defined the tithe as
a tenth of one's individual possessions: "And this," said He, "shall
be the beginning of the tithing of my people. And after that, those
who have thus been tithed, shall pay one tenth of all their interest
annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them for ever, for my
Holy Priesthood, saith the Lord." (D&C 119: 3-4.) The manner in which
the tithes of the people are to be paid and the channels through which
the contributions are to be distributed and used in the work of the
Church are specifically set forth.

As of old, so in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
today, tithing is the divinely established revenue system by which
the pecuniary needs of the ecclesiastical community are provided
for. And as of old so today, tithe-paying must be a voluntary
free-will sacrifice, not to be exacted by secular power nor enforced
by infliction of fines or other material penalties. The obligation
is self-assumed; nevertheless it is one to be observed with full
purpose of heart by the earner who claims standing in the Church and
who professes to abide by the revealed word given for the spiritual
development of its members.

It is essential that men learn to give. Without provision for this
training the curriculum in the school of mortality would be seriously
defective. Human wisdom has failed to devise a more equitable scheme
of individual contribution for community needs than the simple plan
of the tithe. Every one is invited to give in amount proportioned to
his income, and to so give regularly and systematically. The spirit
of giving makes the tithe holy; and it is by means thus sanctified
that the material activities of the Church are carried on. Blessings,
specific and choice, are promised the honest tithe-payer; and these
blessings are placed within the reach of all. In the Lord's work the
widow's penny is as acceptable as the gold-piece of the millionaire.

Tithing is the rental we are asked to pay on the property committed to
our keeping and use. We are but temporary holders, lessees of property
the ultimate title of which is vested in Him who created all that is.

The Latter-day Saints believe that the tithing system has been
divinely appointed for their observance; and they esteem themselves
blessed in thus being permitted to have part in the furtherance of
God's purposes. Under this system the people have prospered severally
and as an organized body. It is the simple and effective revenue
law of the Church; and its operation has been a success from the
time of its establishment. Amongst us it obviates the necessity of
taking up collections in religious assemblies, and makes possible the
promulgation of the Church's message through the printed and spoken
word, the building and maintenance of Temples for the benefit of both
living and dead, to an extent that would be otherwise unattainable.



-- 57 --

THE UNITED ORDER

No Longer Mine and Thine, But the Lord's and Ours

WE live in a material world, and certain material possessions are
essential to life, to say nothing of convenience and comfort. Man
must have food, clothing, and shelter; and he should have the means
of intellectual enjoyment, wholesome recreation, and the desirable
comforts of life. All these things are comprised in what we call
wealth, and under present social conditions are represented by the one
word money. Is it not true that money or its equivalent--the essential
things that money can buy--must be counted among the necessities of
life?

By misquotation we hear it said that money is the root of all evil; but
the Scriptures say not so. The inspired declaration reads: "For the
love of money is the root of all evil." (1 Tim. 6:10.) As soon as one
sets his heart on money he becomes unbalanced in mind and spirit; his
vision and perspective are disturbed.

In view of the prevailing conditions of social unrest, of protest
against existing systems whereby the distribution of wealth is becoming
more and more disproportionate, the consequent dissatisfaction with
governments, and the half-smothered fires of anarchy discernible in
almost every nation, we find comfort in the God-given promise of
a better plan--a plan that provides without force or violence to
establish a rational equality, to take the weapons of despotism
from the oppressor, to banish poverty, and to give to every man the
opportunity to live, labor, and rejoice in the field or sphere to which
he is adapted. From the tyranny of misused wealth, as from every other
form of oppression, the truth will make men free. To deserve real
freedom, and to enjoy the blessings thereof to the full, mankind must
subdue selfishness, which is the potent enemy of godliness.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been put under
training in the practise of altruistic living, in liberality, and
in the overcoming of selfishness, by the Lord's requirement of the
tithe and other free-will offerings and efforts. We regard the tithe
system, however, as but a step in the course of advancement toward the
consecration of all our possessions, time, talents and ability, to the
service of God.

Within a few months after the organization of the Church the voice
of the Lord was heard in the matter, foreshadowing a development yet
future, in preparation for which the tithing system was established.
The day is coming when none amongst us shall speak of mine and thine,
but all we have shall be accounted ours and the Lord's.

In this confident expectation we indulge no vague dreams of communism,
fostering individual irresponsibility, and giving the idler an excuse
for hoping to live at the expense of the thrifty; but in the assurance
that every man shall be a steward of the property entrusted to his
care, with the certainty of being required to give a full account of
his stewardship. The varied and graded vocations will still exist;
there will be laborers whose qualifications are for physical toil,
managers who have proved their ability to lead and direct, some who can
best serve with the pen, others with the plow; there will be engineers
and mechanics, artizans and artists, farmers and scholars, teachers
and authors--each laboring so far as practicable in the sphere of his
choice but each required to work, and to work where and how he can be
of the greatest service. Equal rights are to be insured, for thus the
Lord hath spoken:

"And you are to be equal, or in other words, you are to have equal
claims on the properties, for the benefit of managing the concerns of
your stewardships, every man according to his wants and his needs,
inasmuch as his wants are just." (D&C 82:17.)

Only the idler would suffer under such an order of things as is here
outlined, and against him the edict of the Almighty has gone forth. We
read in the revelations of the Church: "Thou shalt not be idle; for
he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the
laborer." (42:42.)

In the early part of the apostolic ministry, the unity and devotion of
the Church was such that the members established a system of community
ownership; (Acts 2:44-46; 4:32-37; 6:1-4) and during the brief period
of its operation the people prospered temporally and spiritually. More
than thirty centuries earlier the people of Enoch had rejoiced in a
similar condition of oneness, and their righteousness was such that
"The Lord came and dwelt with His people. . . . And the Lord called His
people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt
in righteousness; and there was no poor among them." (Pearl of Great
Price, p. 38.)

The people of whom the Book of Mormon bears record also attained a
blessed state of equality and with corresponding results. The Twelve
Disciples, whom Christ had specially commissioned, ministered with
such effectiveness that the people "had all things common among them,
every man dealing justly one with another." (3 Nephi 26:19.) Further,
"Therefore they were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were
all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift." (4 Nephi 1:3.) Of
them the prophet wrote: "Surely there could not be a happier people
among all the people who had been created by the hand of God." (Verse
16.)

The United Order will be a success when it is established by Divine
direction. The tithing system has failed whenever meddled with by the
secular power. Common ownership can never be enforced by the law of the
land. It must be a religious observance, of voluntary acceptance devoid
of compulsion or restraint; and as such, the world shall yet see this,
the Lord's plan, in successful operation.



-- 58 --

THE WORD OF WISDOM

Sanctity of the Body

"KNOW ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God
destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." (1 Cor.
3:16; see also 6:19; and D&C 93:35.)

In these and kindred Scriptures the sanctity of the human body is
affirmed with impressive simplicity. The word of God stands in strong
contrast with the erroneous assumption that the body is a hindrance and
burden to the spirit and ought to be contemned and kept in subjection
by self-imposed afflictions. The lust of the flesh as manifested
in perverted appetites and passions is a very real temptation, and
servitude thereto is among the commonest of sins; but this is the
evil against which the saints of old were so solemnly warned in the
foregoing citation.

If the mortal state be an advancement beyond the pre-existent or
unembodied condition, and a preparation for a yet more exalted
existence, and so the Scriptures attest, then the body of flesh and
bones is an endowment of supreme worth.

The genius of the current age recognizes the nobility of the mortal
tabernacle in fact if not in theory; and as a result of this advanced
conception, means for the maintenance of health and preservation of
the body and the conservation of its divinely implanted functions are
taught in school and college and are enforced by statute for community
observance.

After long centuries of painful experience the race is coming to
understand that the human body is essentially good; and the word of God
so proclaimed even in the beginning. I venture to affirm that every
natural appetite, yearning, passion of the human organism is inherently
good; and that evil comes not from the normal satisfying of these
cravings but from the perversion thereof.

As early as 1833 the Lord spake to the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints in warning against the use of stimulants and
narcotics, and in counsel as to matters of food and drink. This
revelation is currently known as

The Word of Wisdom

"That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you,
behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only
in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before
him.

"And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the
vine, of your own make.

"And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly; but for the washing
of your bodies.

"And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is
not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be
used with judgment and skill.

"And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.

"And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath
ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man.

"Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season
thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.

"Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord,
have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they
are to be used sparingly;

"And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used only in times
of winter, or of cold, or famine.

"All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the
staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and
the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the
earth;

"And these hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and
excess of hunger.

"All grain is good for the food of man, as also the fruit of the vine,
that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground.

"Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the
horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the
field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also
other grain.

"And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in
obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel, and
marrow to their bones;

"And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden
treasures;

"And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.

"And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel
shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them.
Amen." (D&C 89.)

Hot drinks, against which the people are specifically warned, are
understood to include tea and coffee, and the counsel against their
use was preached and published long before chemists and physiologists
had recognized the deleterious effect of thein and caffein, which
are poisonous alkaloids contained in the beverages named. The
inhibition, however, applies in another sense to all liquids at high
temperatures. To this point special interest attaches in view of recent
demonstrations in science. Dr. Wm. J. Mayo, a surgeon of prominence,
declared in an address delivered in San Francisco, June, 1915, that hot
drinks are among the dominant causes of gastric ulcers and cancer.

The Word of Wisdom is generally but not universally observed in its
entirety by the Latter-day Saints; and it is pertinent to inquire as
to the results revealed by the vital statistics of the people. The
Presiding Bishopric of the Church report that, for the six year period
ending with 1916, deaths among Latter-day Saints in the organized
Stakes, due to cancers and malignant ulcers of the stomach, averaged
15.83 per 100,000 of population. For the United States registration
area as a whole, during the six year period covered by the latest
available report, which, however, is earlier than the sexennium of the
latest Church statistics, the average mortality from stomach cancer is
28.3 per 100,000. Deaths from all cancerous afflictions among members
of the Church during the last six years averaged 31.15 per 100,000, or
only 2.85 more per 100,000 than the national rate of mortality from
stomach cancer alone for the six years last reported.

The statistics of the Church show for its members resident in organized
communities exceptionally low death-rate, high birth-rate, and high
average age at death, as compared with the official reports of
corresponding data for the registration area of the country at large.

Of the certified causes of death "Mormons" lead the country in one, and
that one is old age.

The Divine promise of health, prosperity, and prolonged life are in
course of rich fulfilment among the Latter-day Saints, as in part the
natural effect of obedience to the word of the Lord embodied in the
Word of Wisdom.



-- 59 --

UNCHASTITY THE DOMINANT EVIL

Infamy of a Double Standard of Virtue

THE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims the law
of personal purity as a Divine commandment, the violation of which
constitutes one of the most grievous of sins. We hold that the
requirement is equally binding upon both man and woman, and that
a standard by which he is excused and she condemned is infamously
unjust. Expressive of the attitude of the Church upon this subject,
the following excerpts are taken from a pamphlet issued by the late
President Joseph F. Smith, who at the time of writing was the presiding
official in the Church.

"What has come to be known in present day literature as the social
evil is a subject of perennial discussion, and the means proposed for
dealing with it are topics of contention and debate. That the public
conscience is aroused to the seriousness of the dire condition due to
sexual immorality is a promising indication of prospective betterment.
No more loathsome cancer disfigures the body and soul of society today
than the frightful affliction of sexual sin. It vitiates the very
fountains of life and bequeaths its foul effects to the yet unborn as a
legacy of death.

"Infidelity to marriage vows is a fruitful source of divorce, with
its long train of attendant evils, not the least of which are the
shame and dishonor inflicted on unfortunate though innocent children.
The dreadful effects of adultery cannot be confined to the erring
participants. Whether openly known or partly concealed under the cloak
of guilty secrecy, the results are potent in evil influence. The
immortal spirits that come to earth to tabernacle in bodies of flesh
have the right to be well-born, through parents who are free from the
contamination of sexual vice.

"It is a deplorable fact that society persists in holding woman to
stricter account than man in the matter of sexual offense. What shadow
of excuse, not to speak of justification, can be found for this
outrageous and cowardly discrimination? Can moral defilement be any the
less filthy and pestilential in man than in woman? Is a male leper less
to be shunned for fear of contagion that a woman similarly stricken?

"Oh the baseness, the injustice, the dishonor of it all! Happily the
early promulgators of this shameful conception of a double standard
of morals for the sexes are hidden in the oblivion of the past. Let
the infamy in which they should rightly share be borne by those who
countenance the current acceptance of so vicious a distinction!
Visualize the spectacle. Man, who is by nature the protector and
defender of woman, ready to stone to social death the adulteress, in
whose sin he was partner!

"So far as woman sins it is inevitable that she shall suffer, for
retribution is sure whether it be immediate or deferred. But in so far
as man's injustice inflicts upon her the consequence of his offenses,
he stands convicted of multiple guilt. And man is largely responsible
for the sins against decency and virtue, the burden of which is too
often fastened upon the weaker participant in the crime.

"Horrifying as the condition is, it is nevertheless a black reality,
that hordes of women prostitute their bodies and souls for money and
find no lack of eager buyers. Who is the more depraved--the vendor or
the purchaser of woman's honor? In many cases a power of discernment
and analysis superior to human attainment is essential to a just
verdict, but it appears certain that whatever of palliation through
stress of circumstance may be found for the woman, guilty lust is too
generally the primal motive of the man.

"The low esteem in which strict sexual morality is currently held is
an element of positive danger to the nation as a human institution, to
say nothing of the wholesale debauching of souls as an offense against
Divine decree. With such awful examples as history furnishes, it is a
matter of astonishment that governments should be so nearly oblivious
to the disintegrating forces springing from violations of the moral law
amongst their citizenry.

"The grandeur of ancient Greece, the majesty of Rome, once the proud
rulers of the world, have disappeared; and the verdict of history
specifies the prevalence of sexual immorality as among the chief of
the destructive agencies by which the fall of those mighty peoples was
effected.

"Is our modern nation to bring upon itself the doom of destructive
depravity? The forces of disintegration are at work throughout the
land, and they operate as insidiously as does the virus of deadly
contagion. A nation-wide awakening to the need of personal sanitation
and of rigorous reform in the matter of sexual morality is demanded by
the exigencies of the times.

"The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the divinely ordained panacea for
the ills that afflict humanity, and pre-eminently so for the dread
affliction of sexual sin. Note the teachings of the Master while He
ministered among men in the flesh--they were primarily directed to
individual probity and rectitude of life. The letter of the Mosaic Law
was superseded by the spirit of personal devotion to the right. 'Ye
have heard,' said He, 'that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt
not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a
woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his
heart.' (Matt. 5: 27, 28.) The sin itself may spring from the sensual
thought, the lustful glance; just as murder is often the fruitage of
hatred or covetousness.

"We accept without reservation or qualification the affirmation of
Deity through an ancient Nephite prophet: 'For I, the Lord God, delight
in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me.
Thus saith the Lord of Hosts.'"



-- 60 --

NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE

Companionship of the Sexes

WHEN this earth, a new unit amongst uncounted worlds, had developed
to a condition suited to human habitation, God created man in His own
personal, physical image, and gave him dominion over the earth and its
manifold belongings. Beside the man stood the woman, sharing with him
the divinely bestowed honor and dignity of supremacy over all lesser
creations; for the Lord God had said: "It is not good that the man
should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." (Gen. 2:18.)

So begins the first page of human history relating to this planet: "In
the image of God created He him; male and female created He them."

The earliest recorded commandment to the newly embodied pair provided
for the procreation of their kind; for unto them the Lord said: "Be
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." That the wedded state
thus inaugurated was to be the permanent order of life amongst Adam's
posterity is attested by the further Scripture: "Therefore shall a man
leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and
they shall be one flesh." (Gen. 2:24.)

Inasmuch as the union of the sexes is the only way by which the
perpetuity of the race is possible, such union is essentially as
beneficent as it is necessary. Lawful, that is to say righteous,
association of the sexes, is an uplifting and ennobling function to the
participants, and the heritage of earth-life to preexistent spirits who
are thereby advanced to the mortal state. Conversely, all sexual union
outside the bonds of legitimacy is debasing and pernicious, not only to
the guilty parties themselves, but to children who are thus ill-born,
and to organized society in general.

The stability of society demands that the divinely established
institution of marriage shall be administered under secular
law, whereby the family unit shall be a legalized entity, with
responsibilities and obligations clearly defined, the rights of
husband, wife and children protected, property interests safeguarded,
and inheritance regulated.

But the marriage covenant is more than a legalized contract. It is a
solemn sacrament, under which the parties are made eligible to the
blessing of Divine approval, and by which they are answerable both to
the law of man and to the Power that transcends all human institutions.
That marriage is honorable is as true today as when the precept was
written in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

The Latter-day Saints accept the doctrine of the imperative necessity
of wedlock and the sanctity thereof; and they apply it as a requirement
to all who are not prohibited by physical or other disability from
assuming the sacred responsibilities of the married state. They hold as
part of the birthright of every worthy man the privilege and duty of
standing at the head of a household, the companion of a virtuous wife,
both imbued with the hope of posterity, which by the blessing of God
may never become extinct; and equally ennobling is the desire of every
worthy woman to be a wife and mother in the family of mankind.

We repudiate and abhor the pernicious doctrine that the sexual relation
is but a carnal necessity, inherent in human kind because of fleshly
desire, or that celibacy is a feature of exalted status more acceptable
than marriage in the sight and judgment of God. Touching this matter
the Lord hath spoken through direct revelation in the current age,
saying:

"And again, I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not
ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man. Wherefore
it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall
be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of
its creation, and that it might be filled with the measure of man,
according to his creation before the world was made." (D&C 49: 15-17.)

Without the power of perpetuating his kind man is in part bereft of his
glory; for small is the possibility of achievement within the limited
range of an individual life. Grand as may seem to be the attainments
of a man who is really great as gaged by the best standards of human
estimation, the culmination of his glorious heritage lies in his
leaving offspring from his own body to carry forward the worthy efforts
of their sire. And as with the man, so with the woman.

We regard children literally as gifts from God, committed to our
parental care, for whose support, protection, and training in
righteousness we shall be held to a strict accounting, remembering the
solemn admonition and profound affirmation of the Christ: "Take heed
that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That
in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is
in heaven." (Matt. 18:10.)

But the bringing of children into the world is but part of God's
beneficent plan of uplift and development through honorable marriage.
Companionship of husband and wife is a divinely appointed means
of mutual betterment; and according to the measure of holy love,
mutual respect and honor with which that companionship is graced and
sanctified, do man and woman develop toward the spiritual stature of
God. It is plainly the Divine intent that husband and wife should be
each the other's great incentive to effort and achievement in good
works.

Blessed indeed are the wedded pair who severally find in each a help
meet for the other.



-- 61 --

TILL DEATH DOES YOU PART

Is There No Hope Beyond?

IT is not good that man should be alone.

This is the word of God. It is inscribed on the first page of human
history. The affirmation was given special application to the marital
state, whereby the perpetuity of the race would be insured in the
distinctive family order. To this end "Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall
be one flesh." (Gen. 2:24.)

At the very beginning of man's existence as an embodied spirit, the
Divine fiat against promiscuity in the association of the sexes was
promulgated. Anthropologists aver that even in the most primitive
communities kinship was recognized as an established feature, and laws
relating to the sexual relationship obtained.

The family unit is therefore the universal order amongst mankind,
and is of Divine establishment. Both the Mosaic code and the law of
the Gospel, in which it was fulfilled and superseded, recognized the
sanctity of family ties and prescribed regulations for the maintenance
thereof.

The family institution comprises more than the wedded union of husband
and wife with its mutual obligations and responsibilities. The status
of parenthood is the flower of family existence, while marriage was
but the bud. Under the revealed law parents are as truly answerable to
God for the adequate discharge of duty to their children as for the
faithful observance of the marriage covenant respecting themselves.

Within the family established and maintained according to the Divine
word, man and woman find their holiest and most ennobling happiness.
Individual development--the education of the soul for which earth-life
has been provided--is incomplete without the impelling and restraining
experiences incident to the responsibilities of the wedded and parental
state.

Is the family relationship to end with death?

Are husbands and wives to be separated, and the mutual claims of
parents and children to be nullified by the grave?

If so, then surely the sting of death and the victory of the grave are
enduring verities; for the dead would be lost to us and we to them.
Such a conception affords ample explanation of the prevalence of black
at funerals. The sombre pall and sable trappings are all in place if
bereavement on earth means everlasting separation.

The dread assumption--let us not say belief, for who does not hope
that a brighter destiny awaits us?--has been fostered by custom and
ignorance, and even taught as doctrine by substituting the precepts
of men for the word of God. It is embodied in the marriage ceremony,
wherein the officiating minister, addressing the principals at the
moment of their supreme concern, says: I join you in the bonds of
matrimony until death does you part.

How like the thud of clods upon the casket in an open grave! Must we
tolerate the shadow of death as an intruding guest at every wedding?

Verily so, if marriage be nothing more than an earthly contract,
regulated by law solely as a human institution; for no legislature,
congress, or parliament of men, no synod, church, council, or
ecclesiastical hierarchy of human origination, can legislate or
administer ordinances of other than earthly validity. To claim
jurisdiction in post-mortal affairs on the basis of human assumption is
both sacrilege and blasphemy.

The current marriage ceremony, uniting the parties until death does
them part, is framed in consistency and propriety. As an institution of
men it is honorable and legally binding. And so are all the obligations
and endowments resulting therefrom, including the exalting status
of parenthood. But all such relationships are to end with death if
validated only by man's authority. Can we consistently affirm that if
the grave terminates the claim of parents upon each other it shall not
likewise end the claim of parents upon children, and of children upon
parents?

But behold, there is hope! God has provided a way by which the family
unit may survive the grave and endure throughout eternity. It is
the Divine intent that marriage be an eternal union, and that the
relationship between parents and offspring shall be made valid in the
hereafter as here.

We affirm that the Holy Priesthood has been restored to earth by direct
dispensation from the heavens, and this in accordance with prophecy and
Scripture, and that the authority of this Priesthood, when administered
as God has directed, is effective both on earth and in heaven. (Compare
Matt. 16:19; 18:18.)

We affirm that even as baptism, when administered as our Lord
prescribed, by those invested with the Holy Priesthood, shall be a
means to salvation beyond the grave, so other ordinances, including
the sealing of wives to husbands and children to parents, may be
authoritatively solemnized so as to be valid after death. To this
effect hath the Lord spoken respecting the everlasting covenant, which
embraces marriage for both time and eternity.

"Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her
not by me, nor by my word; and he covenant with her so long as he
is in the world, and she with him, their covenant and marriage are
not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world.
Therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the
world. Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry
nor are given in marriage. . . . And again, verily I say unto you, if
a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and
everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit
of promise . . . it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever
my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity,
and shall be of full force when they are out of the world; and they
shall pass by the angels, and the Gods, which are set there, to their
exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their
heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds
for ever and ever." (D&C 132.)



-- 62 --

THEY NEITHER MARRY

Nor Give in Marriage

CERTAIN Sadducees once came to Christ with a question concerning
martial relations following the resurrection. The real point of their
inquiry was in part hidden, or, in current vernacular, camouflaged.
Their chief purpose was that of disputing the doctrine of the
resurrection itself, the actuality of which the Sadducees as a sect
strenuously denied.

They cited a case, presumably hypothetical, of a woman who had been
married, and then six times remarried under the levirate law, and seven
times widowed, and who eventually had died, childless. The question as
submitted was: "Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be
of the seven?"

"Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the
scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither
marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in
heaven." (Matt. 22:28-30.)

Three of the evangelists make record of the incident; and the most
extended version of our Lord's reply is given by Luke (20:34-38).
From this we gather that while marriage and giving in marriage--that
is to say the association of eligible parties in wedlock, and
the authoritative solemnization of the union by a duly qualified
official--are necessary and honorable undertakings among mortals,
they to whom the Savior referred shall neither marry nor be given in
marriage in the resurrection, but at best shall be made equal to the
angels.

The inquisitorial Sadducees must have felt the force of the Master's
rebuke in being told that they were in error "not knowing the
scriptures nor the power of God," for they prided themselves on their
learning and superior qualities of understanding. Nevertheless, the
reproof was merited, for had they opened their hearts to the spirit
of Scripture, had they considered with honest desire to comprehend
the words of the Lord who spoke to them, whose utterances were and
are Scripture of the highest and most sacred order, they would have
been able to distinguish between ceremonies performed for time only
under the regulations of human law, and ordinances administered by the
authority of God for both time and eternity.

Sacred rites that pertain both to the period of mortality and to the
life beyond must be solemnized on earth. Compliance with the laws
and ordinances of the Gospel, or the rejection of these, determines
the individual test for which the world was prepared as the abode
of men--to "prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things
whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them." (Pearl of Great
Price, p. 66.)

Thus, in the case of the initiatory ordinance, baptism, it is essential
that it be administered to mankind in the flesh; for Scripture nowhere
avers that in and after the resurrection men shall be baptized in water
for the remission of sins done in mortality. And so is it with respect
to marriage.

True, as we have heretofore seen, the merciful economy of God makes
possible the vicarious administration of baptism for the disembodied,
that is for the dead prior to their resurrection; but the actual
baptism is to be solemnized by and upon mortal beings, who, having
been already baptized for themselves, may officiate for their dead
kindred by complying with the revealed laws and regulations. So also
the marital union of the worthy dead, who have lived in lawful and
honorable wedlock as regulated by secular law, may be confirmed and
superseded by the ordinance of Celestial Marriage, wherein the family
relationship is perpetuated by sealing under the authority of the Holy
Priesthood, to be of force and effect in and after the resurrection
from the dead.

The family relationship was primarily designed to be perpetual; and
only as mankind have forfeited or rejected the ministration of the Holy
Priesthood has mere temporal union become a necessary yet but partial
substitute for the eternal order of marriage. Paul's comprehensive
precept "Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman
without the man, in the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:11) has an application beyond
the marital state in mortality.

The full measure of progression in eternity is unattainable without
the perpetuity of the family organization; and the family unit must be
established on earth through the order of Celestial Marriage, which
comprises marriage for time as well as for eternity, or, in the case of
the dead by the confirmation and extension of earthly wedlock through
the vicarious sealing of the parties in Celestial Marriage. Otherwise,
that is if the marriage of any couple shall have been by secular
authority only, without the authority of the Holy Priesthood, the
parties shall find in the resurrection that neither are they married
nor can they then be given in marriage.

Following the visitation of the Risen Christ to the Nephites on the
Western Continent we read of the marriage institution associated with
specific blessings, indicating the authorized administration of the
higher and eternal order of matrimony: "And they were married, and
given in marriage, and were blessed according to the multitude of the
promises which the Lord had made unto them." (Book of Mormon, 4 Nephi
1:11.)

Concerning those who are wedded for this life only, the word of God
as revealed in the present age is in strict accord with the Lord's
affirmation to the Sadducees:

"Therefore, when they are out of the world, they neither marry, nor are
given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels are
ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far
more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory." (D&C 132:16.)



-- 63 --

CELESTIAL MARRIAGE

Eternal Relationship of the Sexes

"NEITHER is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the
man, in the Lord." (1 Cor. 11:11.)

This scriptural epigram loses much of its significance if restricted
to the period of mortal life. Admitting the actuality of individual
existence after death, both during the interval of disembodiment and
beyond in the resurrected state, we must in consistency accept the
fact of the eternity of sex. Man will be man and woman woman in the
hereafter as here.

Marriage as regarded by the Latter-day Saints is ordained of God and
designed to be an eternal relationship. The Church affirms it to be not
only a temporal and legal contract, of binding effect during the mortal
life of the parties, but also a solemn covenant that shall endure
beyond the grave. In the complete ordinance of marriage as administered
within the Church, the man and the woman are placed under covenant of
mutual fidelity and union not until death does them part, but for time
and for all eternity.

A contract as far-reaching as this, extending not only throughout the
period of earth-life, but beyond death, requires for its validation an
authority superior to any that can be originated by human enactment;
and such authority is found in the Holy Priesthood, which, given of
God, is eternal.

Only as God delegates authority to man, with promise that
administration under that authority shall be acknowledged in heaven,
can any contract be made in this world and be of assured validity after
the death of the parties concerned. Marriage is properly authorized by
legal statute; and every contract of matrimony entered into as the law
provides is honorable, and unless dissolved by the operation of law is
effective during the life of the respective parties thereto. But it is
beyond the power of man to legislate for eternity.

This is made plain in a revelation given to the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints in 1843, part of which follows:

"All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows,
performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not
made, and entered into, and sealed, by the Holy Spirit of promise,
of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity,
and that too most holy, by revelation and commandment . . . are of no
efficacy, virtue or force, in and after the resurrection from the dead;
for all contracts that are not made unto this end, have an end when
men are dead. . . . And everything that is in the world, whether it be
ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or things of
name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me, or by my word, saith
the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not remain after men are
dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith the Lord your God."
(D&C 132:7, 13.)

In application of this principle and law to the covenants of matrimony,
the revelation continues:

"Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her
not by me, nor by my word; and he covenant with her so long as he
is in the world, and she with him, their covenant and marriage are
not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world;
therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the
world."

This holy order of matrimony, involving covenant and blessing for both
time and eternity, is distinctively known in the Church as Celestial
Marriage, and is administered to those only who are adjudged to be
of worthy life, eligible for admission to the House of the Lord; for
this sacred ordinance together with others of eternal validity may
be solemnized only within the Temples reared and dedicated for such
exalted service.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, however, sanctions and
acknowledges legal marriages for mortality alone, and solemnizes such
unions, as the secular law provides, between parties who do not enter
the Temple or who voluntarily choose the lesser and temporal order of
matrimony. The ordinance of Celestial Marriage comprises and includes
marriage for time, and is therefore administered to none who are not
legally eligible to marry according to the law of the land.

Marriage that shall be valid after death must be solemnized here, as
must all other ordinances required of men in the flesh, and that under
the authority given of God for earthly administration. The resurrected
state of those, otherwise worthy, who are wedded for mortality alone
and that under laws created by man, is set forth in both ancient and
modern Scripture as that of angels or ministers, unblessed by eternal
increase:

"For these angels did not abide my law, therefore they cannot be
enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in
their saved condition, to all eternity, and from henceforth are not
Gods, but are angels of God, for ever and ever." (D&C 132:17.)



-- 64 --

THERE WAS WAR IN HEAVEN

Primeval Conflict Over Satanic Autocracy

"AND there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against
the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not;
neither was their place found any more in heaven." See Rev. 12:7-9.

John the Revelator beheld in vision this scene of primeval conflict
between the hosts of unembodied spirits. Plainly this battle antedated
the beginning of human history, for the dragon or Satan had not then
been expelled from heaven, and at the time of his first recorded
activity among mortals he was a fallen being.

In this antemortal contest the forces were unequally divided; Satan
drew to his standard only a third of the spirit children of God (Rev.
12:4; D&C 29:36-38 and 76:25-27), while the majority either fought
with Michael or refrained from active opposition, and so accomplished
the purpose of their "first estate." The angels who followed Satan
"kept not their first estate" (Jude 6) and so forfeited the glorious
possibilities of an advanced or "second estate." (Pearl of Great Price,
p. 66.) The victory was won by Michael and his angels; and Satan,
theretofore a "son of the morning," was cast out of heaven, yea "he was
cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." (Rev.
12:9.)

About eight centuries prior to John's time, the principal facts of
these momentous occurrences were revealed to Isaiah the prophet, who
lamented with inspired pathos the fall of so great a one as Lucifer,
and specified selfish ambition as the cause. Read Isa. 14:12-15.

The question at issue in the war in heaven is of first importance to
human-kind. From the record of Isaiah we learn that Lucifer, then
of exalted rank among the spirits, sought to aggrandize himself
without regard to the rights and agency of others. He aspired to the
unrighteous powers of absolute autocracy. The principle for which
Michael, the archangel contended, and which Lucifer sought to nullify,
comprised the individual liberties or the free agency of the spirit
hosts destined to be embodied in the flesh. The whole matter is set
forth in a revelation given to Moses and repeated through Joseph Smith,
the first prophet of the present dispensation:

"And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou
hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which
was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying--Behold, here
am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that
one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give
me thine honor. But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and
Chosen from the beginning, said unto me--Father, thy will be done, and
the glory be thine forever. Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled
against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord
God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own
power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be
cast down. And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all
lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his
will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice." (Pearl of Great
Price, pp. 15-16.)

Thus it is shown that before this earth was tenanted by man, Christ and
Satan together with the hosts of the spirit offspring of God existed as
intelligent individuals, with ability and power of choice, and freedom
to follow the leaders whom they elected to obey. In that innumerable
concourse of spirit intelligences, the Father's plan, whereby His
children would be advanced to their second estate, was submitted and
doubtless discussed.

Satan's plan of compulsion whereby all would be forcibly guided
through mortality, bereft of freedom to act and agency to choose, so
circumscribed that forfeiture of salvation would be impossible and not
one soul could be lost, was rejected; and the humble offer to Jesus
the Firstborn--to live among men as their Exemplar, observing the
sanctity of man's agency while teaching men to use aright that Divine
heritage--was accepted. The decision brought war, which resulted in
the vanquishment of Lucifer and his angels, and they were cast out,
deprived of the boundless privileges incident to the mortal or second
estate.

Ever since the beginning of human existence on earth, the deposed son
of the morning and his followers have been compassing the captivity
of souls. The plan of salvation is the gospel of liberty. And now, in
these the last days, immediately precedent to the return of Christ, who
shall come to rule in righteousness on earth, the arch-fiend is making
desperate effort to enthrall mankind under the autocracy of hell. The
conflict under which the earth has been made to groan was a repetition
of the premundane war, whereby the free agency of spirits was
vindicated; and the eventual issue of the later struggle was equally
assured.



-- 65 --

WE LIVED BEFORE WE WERE BORN

Our Primeval Childhood

IT is a grievous error to assume that mortal birth marks the beginning
of one's individual existence. Quite as reasonable is it to hold that
death means annihilation of the soul. The preexistent or antemortal
state of man is as plainly affirmed by Scripture as is the fact of life
beyond the grave.

We are too prone to regard the body as the man, and this mistake breeds
the thought that life in the flesh is all there is to existence. There
is in man an immortal spirit that existed as an intelligent being
before the body was begotten, and that shall continue to exist as the
same immortal individual after the body has gone to decay. Divine
revelation attests the solemn truth that man is eternal.

No one who accepts the Holy Bible as the word of God can consistently
deny the preexistence of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the first chapter
of the Gospel written by John, Christ is designated as the Word, and
the Savior's preexistence and primeval Godship are thus set forth: "In
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God." We read further: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us." (John 1:1 and 14.)

Our Lord's personal testimony is to the same effect. Of the disciples
he asked: "What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he
was before?" (John 6:62.) And on another occasion He averred "I came
forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave
the world, and go to the Father." (John 16:28.) In solemn prayer He
implored, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with
the glory which I had with thee before the world was." (John 17:5.)

Nevertheless, as to earthly birth Christ was born a Child and lived to
maturity as a Man among men. Even as His bodily birth was the union of
a preexistent spirit with a tabernacle of flesh and bones, such also is
the birth of every human being.

Everyone of us was known by name and character to the Father, who is
"the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numbers 16:22; 27:16), in our
antemortal or primeval childhood; and from among the hosts of His
unembodied children God chose for special service on earth such as were
best suited to the accomplishment of His purposes. In illustration
consider the Lord's definite revelation to Jeremiah the prophet:
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest
forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations." (Jer. 1:5.)

More than twelve centuries before Jeremiah's time God had revealed unto
Abraham the fact of the preexistence of the spirits of mankind, as also
the diverse capacities of those spirits, and the Divine purpose in
preparing the earth for their habitation. Thus runs the record:

"Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were
organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of
the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good,
and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my
rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that
they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them;
thou wast chosen before thou wast born. And there stood one among them
that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We
will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these
materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we
will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever
the Lord their God shall command them; And they who keep their first
estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate
shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their
first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory
added upon their heads forever and ever." (Pearl of Great Price, pp.
65-66.)

Our life in the flesh is but one stage in the course of the soul's
eternal progress, a link connecting the eternities past with the
eternities yet to come. The purpose of our mortal probation is that of
education, training, trial, and test, whereby we demonstrate whether we
will obey the commandments of the Lord our God and so lay hold on the
boundless opportunities of advancement in the eternal worlds, or elect
to do evil and forfeit the boon of citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The condition upon which mankind may have place in that Kingdom is
compliance with the requirements laid down by Jesus Christ the Redeemer
and Savior of the world, whose name is "the only name which shall be
given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of
men." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 33.)



-- 66 --

MAN IS ETERNAL

Successive Stages of Existence

THERE are four states, conditions, or stages in the advancement
of the individual soul, specified in Sacred Writ. These are (1)
the unembodied, (2) the embodied, (3) the disembodied, and (4) the
resurrected state.

In other words, (1) every one of us lived in an antemortal existence as
an individual spirit; (2) we are now in the advanced or mortal stage of
progress; (3) we shall live in a disembodied state after death, which
is but a separation of spirit and body; (4) and in due time each of us,
whether righteous or sinful, shall be resurrected from the dead with
spirit and body reunited and never again to be separated.

As to the certainty of the antemortal state, commonly spoken of as
preexistence, the Scriptures are explicit. Our Lord Jesus Christ
repeatedly averred that He had lived before He was born in flesh (see
John 6:62; 8:58; 16:28; 17:5); and as with Him so with the spirits of
all who have become or yet shall become mortal.

We were severally brought into being, as spirits, in that preexistent
condition, literally the children of the Supreme Being whom Jesus
Christ worshiped and addressed as Father. Do we not read that the
Eternal Father is "the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numb. 16:22;
27:16), and more specifically that He is "the Father of spirits"? (Heb.
12:9.) In the light of these Scriptures it is plainly true that the
spirits of mankind were there begotten and born into what we call the
preexistent or antemortal condition.

The primeval spirit birth is expressively described by Abraham to whom
the facts were revealed, as a process of organization and the spirits
so advanced are designated as intelligences: "Now the Lord had shown
unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the
world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great
ones." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 65.)

The human mind finds difficulty in apprehending the actuality of
infinite or eternal process, either from the present onward to and
beyond what we call in a relative sense perfection, on, on, without
end; or backward through receding stages that had no beginning. But who
will affirm that things beyond human comprehension cannot be?

In the antemortal eternities we developed with individual differences
and varied capacities. So far as we can peer into the past by the
aid of revealed light we see that there was always gradation of
intelligence, and consequently of ability, among the spirits, precisely
as such differences exist amongst us mortals.

"That all men are created equal" is true in the sense in which that
telling epigram was written into the scriptures of the Nation as a
self-evident truth; for such laws as men enact in righteousness provide
for the protection of individual rights on a basis of equality and
recognize no discriminating respect of persons. But if applied as
meaning that all men are born with equal capacities, or even inherent
abilities in like measure for each, the aphorism becomes absurd and
manifestly false.

Every spirit born in the flesh is an individual character, and brings
to the body prepared for its tenancy a nature all its own. The
tendencies, likes and dislikes, in short the whole disposition of the
spirit may be intensified or changed by the course of mortal life,
and the spirit may advance or retrograde while allied with its mortal
tabernacle. Students of the so-called science with a newly coined name,
Eugenics, are prone to emphasize the facts of heredity to the exclusion
of preexistent traits and attributes of the individual spirit as
factors in the determination of character.

The spirit lived as an organized intelligence before it became the
embodied child of human parents; and its pre-existent individualism
will be of effect in its period of earth life. Even though the
manifestations of primeval personality be largely smothered under the
tendencies due to bodily and prenatal influence, it is there, and makes
its mark. This is in analogy with the recognized laws of physical
operation--every force acting upon a body produces it definite effect
whether it acts alone or with other and even opposing forces.

The genesis of every soul lies back in the eternity past, beyond the
horizon of our full comprehension, and what we call a beginning is as
truly a consummation and an ending, just as mortal birth is at once
the commencement of earth life and the termination of the stage of
antemortal existence.

The facts are thus set forth in the revealed word of God:

"If there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the
other yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent
than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have
no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal."
(Pearl of Great Price, p. 65.)

To every stage of development, as to every human life, there is
beginning and end; but each stage is a definite fraction of eternal
process, which is without beginning or end. Man is of eternal nature
and of Divine lineage.



-- 67 --

IN THE LINEAGE OF DEITY

Man's Divine Pedigree

THE spirits of mankind are the offspring of God. The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints so affirms on the basis of scriptural
certainty, and as wholly reasonable and consistent.

The preexistent or antemortal state of man has been heretofore
demonstrated. God the Eternal Father is the actual and literal Parent
of spirits. That many of these spirits in their embodied state manifest
more of human weakness than of Divine heritage, that they grasp the
earthly present with little regard for the heavenly past and with less
for the yet greater possibilities of the heavenly future, is no proof
to the contrary of the revealed truth that man belongs to the lineage
of God.

Of all the spirit children begotten of the Eternal Father throughout
the eons past, Jesus Christ was the firstborn. To this solemn truth the
Christ has testified in the current age: "And now, verily I say unto
you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the firstborn." And
as to the human family in general, ponder our Lord's further avowal:
"Ye were also in the beginning with the Father." (D&C 93:21, 23.)

The Scriptures aver that all things existing upon earth, including
man, were created spiritually prior to their embodiment in earthly
tabernacles; and furthermore, that mortal man is fashioned after the
image of God. In short, all earthly existences are material expressions
of preexistent entities. The human body, so far as it is normal,
undeformed and unimpaired, is a presentment of the spirit itself.

One of the essential and distinguishing characteristics of life is
the power to select and utilize in its own tabernacle, whether plant,
animal, or human, the material elements within its reach, so far as
such are necessary to its growth and development. This is true alike of
the unborn embryo and of the mature being.

Man's spirit, therefore, is in the likeness of its Divine and Eternal
Father, and in the operations of the functions of life it shapes the
body to conform with itself. How could the spirit be otherwise than in
the image of God if it be divinely begotten and born?

The conformation of the body to the likeness of the pre-existent spirit
is attested in a revelation to an ancient prophet and seer, wherein
the Lord Jesus Christ, then in the unembodied state, showed Himself to
His mortal servant, saying: "Seest thou that ye are created after mine
own image? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning, after mine
own image. Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my
spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and even as
I appear unto thee to be in the spirit, will I appear unto my people in
the flesh." (Book of Mormon, Ether, 3:15, 16).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the
spirit of man being the offspring of Deity, and the human body though
of earthly composition yet being, in its perfect condition, the very
image of God, man, even in his present and so-called fallen condition,
possesses inherited traits, tendencies, and powers that tell of his
Divine descent; and that these attributes may be developed as to make
him, even while mortal, in a measure Godlike. If this be not true we
have to explain a vital exception to what we regard as an inviolable
law of organic nature--that like begets like, and that perpetuation of
species is in compliance with the condition "each after his kind."

The actuality of the spiritual procreation, with which mortal birth is
analogous, is expressed in the inspired hymn by a latter-day poetess,
Eliza R. Snow:

For a wise and glorious purpose
  Thou hast placed me here on earth,
And withheld the recollection
  Of my former friends and birth;
Yet ofttimes a secret something
  Whispered, "You're a stranger here";
And I felt that I had wandered
  From a more exalted sphere.

I had learned to call thee Father,
  Through thy Spirit from on high;
But until the Key of Knowledge
  Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heavens are parents single?
  No; the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason, truth eternal
  Tells me I've a Mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,
  When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
  In your royal courts on high?
Then, at length, when I've completed
  All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation
  Let me come and dwell with you.



-- 68 --

UNENDING ADVANCEMENT

Infinite Possibilities of Man's Estate

THE spirit of man is in the image of God, whose child it is, and every
human body conforms, in the measure determined by its perfection or
physical defects, to the spirit that tenants it. Furthermore, we know
that the spirit existed in the ante-mortal state, that after death it
lives as a disembodied individual, and that later it shall be reunited
with the body of flesh and bones in an everlasting union through the
resurrection inaugurated by our Lord Jesus Christ.

If man be the spirit offspring of God, and if the possibilities of
individual progression be endless, to both of which sublime truths the
Scriptures bear definite testimony, then we have to admit that man
may eventually attain to Divine estate. However far away it be in the
eternities future, what eons may elapse before any one now mortal may
reach the sanctity and glory of godhood, man nevertheless has inherited
from his Divine Father the possibilities of such attainment--even as
the crawling caterpillar or the corpse-like chrysalis holds the latent
possibility, nay, barring destruction, the certainty, indeed, of the
winged imago in all the glory of maturity.

Progression in mortality, that is true progression, advancement of
the soul in developing the attributes of godliness, achievement in
righteousness that shall endure beyond death and resurrection, is
conditioned upon compliance with spiritual law, just as bodily health
is dependent upon the observance of what we call natural law. Between
the two there may be difference of degree, but not essentially of kind.
Physical exercise is indispensable to the development of body, and
quite as certainly is spiritual activity requisite to the healthful and
normal development of the soul.

Through valiant service, by unreserved obedience to the requirements
embodied in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, never-ending advancement is
made possible to man. Thus, within the soul are the potentialities
of godhood. Such high attainment is specifically the exaltation of
the soul as distinguished from salvation. Not all who are saved in
the hereafter shall be exalted. One may refrain in large measure
from committing particular sins or sin in general, and so gain title
to a degree of salvation far above the lot of the gross offender,
nevertheless his goodness may be merely passive, and thus distinctly
apart from the active, aggressive, positive godliness of him who is
valiant in righteous service.

The incident of the rich young Jew who came in quest of instruction
as to his duty is in point. See Matt. 19:16-26. "Good Master," said
he, "what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" The
Lord answered "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments"
and in response to further inquiry cited the standard requirements of
the Mosaic Law. In simplicity, and seemingly devoid of all sense of
self-righteousness, the young man rejoined: "All these things have I
kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" Then Jesus replied "If thou
wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." The young
ruler, for as such he is designated, yearned to know what he should
do beyond ordinary observance of "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" of
the decalog. He went away sorrowful in contemplation of the sacrifice
required of him for the attainment of perfection. Love of worldly
things was this man's besetting ailment. The Great Physician diagnosed
his case and prescribed a suitable remedy.

Through the latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith, the Lord has specified
the conditions of exaltation in the eternal worlds, by describing those
who thus attain:

"They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on His
name and were baptized after the manner of His burial, being buried
in the water in His name, and this according to the commandment which
He has given. That by keeping the commandments they might be washed
and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the
laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this
power. . . . They are they who are Priests and Kings, who have received
of His fulness, and of His glory, and are Priests of the Most High,
after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch,
which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son. Wherefore, as it is
written, they are Gods, even the sons of God." (D&C 76:51-58.)

And further, of the supremely blessed we read:

"Then shall they be Gods, because they have no end; therefore shall
they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then
shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then
shall they be Gods, because they have all power, and the angels are
subject unto them. Verily, verily I say unto you, except ye abide my
law, ye cannot attain to this glory." (132:20, 21.)

But all shall be subject to the Eternal Father and His Son Jesus
Christ, as thus attested:

"Wherefore all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things
present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ's and
Christ is God's." (76:59.)



-- 69 --

THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

Both to Hear The Gospel

THE Atonement of Jesus Christ is the means by which salvation has been
placed within the reach of all mankind--poor and rich, bond and free,
and, be it added, living or dead.

We have seen in the light of scriptural demonstration that, except
through compliance with the laws and ordinances of the Gospel as
enunciated and prescribed by the Lord Jesus Christ, no man can attain a
place in the Kingdom of God.

What then of the dead, who have lived and passed without so much as
hearing that there is a Gospel of salvation or a Savior of the race?
Are they to be hopelessly and forever damned? If so, the phrase
"eternal justice" should be stricken from Scripture and literature, and
"infamous injustice" substituted.

Think of the myriads who died before and at the Deluge, of the hosts
of Israel who knew only the Law and died in ignorance of the Gospel,
and count in with them the millions of their pagan contemporaries; then
think of the generations who passed away during the long dark night of
spiritual apostasy, predicted by prophecy and attested by history; and
contemplate the heathen and but partly civilized tribes of the present
day. Are these, to whom no knowledge of the Gospel has come, to be
under eternal condemnation in consequence?

In the hereafter the saved and the lost are to be segregated. The
Scriptures so avouch. Therefore, were there no salvation for these who
have died in ignorance of Christ's Atonement and His Gospel, these
benighted spirits could never associate with their descendants who have
been privileged to live in an age of Gospel enlightenment, and who
have made themselves eligible for salvation by faith and its fruitage,
obedience.

I have read of a heathen king, who, through the zealous efforts of
missionaries whom he had tolerantly admitted to his realm, was inclined
to accept what had been presented to him as Christianity and make it
the religion of his people. Though he yearned for the blessed state of
salvation which the new religion seemed to offer, he was profoundly
affected by the thought that his ancestors, the dead chieftains of his
tribe, together with all the departed of his people, had gone to their
graves unsaved. When he was told that while he and his subjects could
reach heaven, those who had died before had surely gone to hell, he
exclaimed with a loud oath "Then to hell I will go with them."

He spoke as a brave man. Though, had he been more fully informed he
would have known that the Gospel of Jesus Christ entails no such dire
certainty; but that, on the contrary, the spirits of his noble dead
would have opportunity of learning, in the world of the disembodied,
the saving truth which in the flesh had never saluted their ears.

The Gospel is being preached to the dead. Missionary service in the
spirit world has been in progress since its inauguration by the
disembodied Christ while His crucified body lay in the tomb. (John
5:25.)

Christ's promise from the cross to the penitent thief dying by His
side, that the man should that day be in paradise with the Lord, tells
us where the Savior's spirit went and ministered during the interval
between death and resurrection. Paradise is not heaven, if by that name
we mean the abode of God and the place of the supremely blessed; for in
the early light of the resurrection Sunday the Risen Lord decisively
affirmed that He had not then ascended to His Father. (See John 20:17.)

Peter tells of the Lord's ministry among the disembodied: "For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he
might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened
by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in
prison." (1 Peter 3:18-19.)

The terms of salvation are equally binding upon the quick and the dead:
"For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead,
that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live
according to God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6.)

The Atonement would be shorn of its sublime import and effect were
its provisions limited to the relative few who have complied with the
ordinances of the Gospel in the body. But the Scriptures abundantly
show that the Atonement is of universal effect, reaching every soul,
both in the certainty of resurrection from death and in the opportunity
for salvation through individual obedience. With particular reference
to redemption from death Jacob, a Nephite prophet, thus spake:
"Wherefore it must needs be an infinite atonement; save it should be
an infinite atonement, this corruption could not put on incorruption."
(Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9:7.)

Obedience to Gospel requirements is likewise of universal application.
It follows that if any man has failed, either through neglect or lack
of opportunity to meet the requirement, the obligation is not cancelled
by death.



-- 70 --

GOD OF THE LIVING

All Live Unto Him

"BUT as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that
which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead,
but of the living." See Matt. 22:23-33.

These words of the Master were addressed to a party of Sadducees,
who had asked, though in irony, concerning certain details of the
resurrected state, all the while holding to their unscriptural dogma
that there could not be a resurrection from the dead.

The Lord dismissed their circumstantial instance with terse reproof
and brief explanation, and went direct to the real point of their
question--the actuality of the resurrection then future. He cited a
Scripture often quoted in the rabbinical discourses of the time, daily
sung in the refrain of the temple chants, and of frequent recurrence
in their ceremonial orisons: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

Jehovah's affirmation of His own identity as expressed in this passage
was made to Moses at Horeb. See Exo. 3. At that time Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, with whom He who there spake unto Moses from amidst the
fiery splendor of the burning bush had made covenant of everlasting
effect, were dead. The climax of the Master's explanatory and positive
doctrine was unanswerable: "He is not a God of the dead, but of the
living: for all live unto him." (Luke 20:38.)

Small wonder that certain of the Scribes exclaimed, "Master, thou hast
well said," nor that the multitude "were astonished at His doctrine."
To acclaim as one of the distinguishing titles of Jehovah that He
was the God of the patriarchs whom they most revered, and yet hold
that those worthies were dead in the Sadducean sense of death, was
inconsistency itself.

The real import of death varies with the point of view. Looked at from
this side of the veil it means bereavement, departure, separation, and
as some ignorantly profess to believe, annihilation. From the other
side it is seen in its verity as the disembodiment of the living,
active, intelligent spirit, which existed before its entrance into a
tabernacle of flesh and bones, which maintains its individuality after
bodily dissolution, and which is destined to be reembodied in the
resurrection.

In these several states of existence the spirit is the same being,
with specific powers and functions, endowed with agency or choice,
and therefore strictly accountable. Death of the body in no sense
extinguishes the conscious personality of the spirit nor does it
terminate individual accountability.

Peter tells us of disembodied spirits who had lived in the flesh
during the Noachian dispensation, and who through disobedience and
wilful rejection of the Gospel had incurred bodily destruction, and
imprisonment of their undying spirits throughout the centuries from
Noah to Christ. Unto them the disembodied Savior went and preached the
Gospel. They were therefore alive, possessed of understanding, and
capable of accepting or again rejecting the Gospel of salvation.

Yet they were all numbered among the dead as man counts the departed;
and for that matter so was the Christ, for His visitation to those
"spirits in prison" was made during the interval of His death on the
cross and His emergence from the tomb with spirit and body reunited--a
resurrected Soul.

The Nephite prophet Alma set forth in words of inspired plainness the
continuity of intelligent existence after death:

"Now concerning the state of the soul between death and the
resurrection. Behold, it has been made known unto me, by an angel, that
the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal
body; yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are
taken home to that God who gave them life. And then shall it come to
pass that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a
state of happiness, which is called paradise; a state of rest; a state
of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all
care, and sorrow. . . . Now this is the state of the souls of the
wicked; yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful, looking for
the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain
in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of
their resurrection." (Book of Mormon, Alma 40.)

And as to the individual existence in and after the resurrection, the
same revelator has given us this Scripture:

"Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death: and the death
of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall
be raised from this temporal death. The spirit and the body shall
be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be
restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we
shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and
have a bright recollection of all our guilt. Now this restoration shall
come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and
female, both the wicked and the righteous." (Alma 11.)



-- 71 --

BEYOND THE GRAVE

Repentance Possible Even There

IN view of scriptural affirmation that between His death and
resurrection Christ visited and ministered to the spirits who had been
disobedient, and who, because of unexpiated sins were still held in
duress, it is pertinent to inquire as to the object and scope of the
Savior's ministry among them. (See 1 Peter 3:18-19; and 4:6.)

His preaching "to the spirits in prison" must have been purposeful and
positive. Moreover, it is not to be assumed that His message was other
than one of relief and mercy. Those to whom He went had long been in a
state of durance, deprivation and suffering. To them came the Redeemer
to preach, not to further condemn, to show them the way that led to
light, not to intensify the darkness of their despair.

Had not that visit of deliverance been long predicted? Centuries
earlier Isaiah had voiced the word of Jehovah concerning the state
of proud and wicked spirits: "And they shall be gathered together,
as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the
prison, and after many days shall they be visited." (Isa. 24:22; see
also 42:6, 7.) David, conscious of his own transgression, but thrilled
with contrition and hope, sang in measures of mingled sorrow and joy:
"Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also
shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." (Psa.
16:9-10.)

Inasmuch as Christ preached the Gospel to the dead, His ministry must
have included the affirmation of His own atoning death, the inculcation
of faith in Himself and in the whole plan of salvation, which includes
as a fundamental essential, contrite repentance acceptable unto God.

Peter specifies the purpose of the Savior's introduction of the Gospel
to departed spirits as "that they might be judged according to men in
the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." (1 Pet. 4-6.)
Through latter-day revelation we learn that among the inhabitants of
the terrestrial world, or lesser kingdom of glory, are "they who are
the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached
the gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in
the flesh; who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but
afterwards received it." (D&C 76:73-74.)

Progression, then, is possible beyond the grave. Advancement is
eternal. Were it otherwise, Christ's ministry among the disembodied
would be less than fable and fiction. Equally repugnant is the thought
that though the Savior preached faith, repentance and other principles
of the Gospel to the imprisoned sinners in the realm of spirits, their
compliance was impossible.

It is not difficult to conceive of disembodied spirits being capable
of faith and repentance. Death has not destroyed their status as
individual intelligences. As they hear the glad tidings of the Gospel
some will accept, and others, the obstinate and rebellious, will reject
and for a further period will have to languish in prison.

Besides the principles of the Gospel there are certain ordinances
involving material works, which are indispensable to salvation. Among
these the Scriptures specify baptism by immersion in water, and the
reception of the Holy Ghost by the imposition of authorized hands. How
can a man be baptized when he is dead? The answer is that the necessary
ordinances may be administered vicariously for the dead to their living
representatives in the body. Thus, as a man may be baptized in his own
person for himself, he may be baptized as proxy for his ancestral dead.
Herein we find point and explanation of Paul's challenging question to
the doubting Corinthians: "Else what shall they do which are baptized
for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized
for the dead?" (1 Cor. 15:29.)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affirms that the Divine
plan of salvation is not bounded by the grave; but that the Gospel is
deathless and everlasting, reaching back through all the ages that have
sped, and forward into the eternities of the future. Vicarious service
by the living in behalf of the dead is in line with and a result of the
supreme vicarious sacrifice embodied in the Atonement wrought by the
Savior of the world.

Largely for the administration of ordinances in behalf of the dead
the Latter-day Saints build and maintain Temples, wherein the living
posterity enter the waters of baptism and receive the laying on of
hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, as representatives of their
departed progenitors. This labor was foretold through Malachi as
a necessary and characteristic feature of the last dispensation,
preceding the advent of Christ in glory and judgment. Thus, the dead
fathers and living children are turned toward one another in the
affection of a kinship that is to endure throughout eternity. (See Mal.
4:5-6.)

We solemnly aver that on April 3, 1836, Elijah the ancient prophet
came to earth and committed unto the restored Church the authority and
commission to administer in behalf of the dead. (See D&C 110: 13-16.)



-- 72 --

OPPORTUNITY HERE AND HEREAFTER

Free Agency and Its Results

REPENTANCE and other good works, whereby the saving grace of Christ's
Atonement may be made of individual effect for the remission of sins,
are possible to the dead; and furthermore, the required ordinances of
the Gospel may be administered to the living in behalf of the departed.

Let it not be assumed that the doctrine of vicarious labor for the
disembodied implies, even remotely, that the administration of
ordinances in behalf of the dead operates in the least degree to
interfere with the right of choice and the free exercise of agency
on their part. They are at liberty to accept or reject ministrations
intended for their benefit; and so they will accept or reject in accord
with their penitent or unregenerate condition, even as is the case with
those whom the Gospel message reaches in mortality.

Though baptism be authoritatively administered to a living person
as proxy for a dead ancestor, that spirit will derive no immediate
advancement nor salvation thereby if he has not yet attained faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, or if he be still unrepentant. Even as Christ
has made salvation possible to all, though few there be who accept the
prescribed conditions in the flesh, so vicarious ordinances may be
administered for many in the spirit realm who are not yet prepared to
avail themselves of the opportunities thus placed within their reach.

It is evident that labor in behalf of the dead is two-fold; that
performed on earth would remain incomplete and futile but for its
supplement and counterpart beyond the veil. Missionary work is in
progress there--work compared with which the evangelistic labor on
earth is relatively of small extent. There are preachers and teachers,
ministers invested with the Holy Priesthood, all engaged in proclaiming
the Gospel of Jesus Christ to spirits still sitting in darkness. This
great labor was inaugurated by the Savior during the brief period
of His disembodiment. It is reasonable and consistent to hold that
the saving ministry so begun was left to be continued by others duly
authorized and commissioned; just as the work of preaching the Gospel
and administering therein among the living was committed to the
Apostles of old through their ordination by the Lord Himself.

Missionary service in the spirit world is primarily effective among two
classes: (1) those who have died in ignorance of the Gospel--i. e.,
those who have lived and died without law, and who therefore cannot
be condemned until they have come to the knowledge and opportunity
requisite to obedience; and (2) those who failed to comply with the
laws and ordinances of the Gospel in the flesh, and who through the
experiences of the other world have come to the contrite and receptive
state.

It is unreasonable and vitally opposed to both letter and spirit
of Holy Scripture to assume that neglect or rejection of the call
to repentance in this life can be easily remedied by repentance
hereafter. Forfeiture through disobedience is a very real loss,
entailing deprivation of opportunity beyond all human computation.
Refusal to hear and heed the word of God is no physical deafness, but
a manifestation of spiritual disease resulting from sin. Death is no
cure for such. The unrepentant state is a disorder of the spirit, and,
following disembodiment, the spirit will still be afflicted therewith.

What ages such an afflicted one may have to pass in prison confines
before he becomes repentant and therefore fit for cleansing, we may
not know. The unrepentant hosts who rejected the Gospel in the days of
Noah remained in thraldom until after the crucifixion of Christ. (See
1 Peter 3:18-20.) The prophet Amulek admonished the people to repent
while opportunity permitted. Consider his inspired appeal:

"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet
God. . . . Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis,
that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say
this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the
time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power
to possess your body in that eternal world. For behold, if ye have
procrastinated the day of your repentance, even until death, behold, ye
have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you
his." (Book of Mormon, Alma 34:32-35.)

Revelation in the current age confirms the earlier Scriptures in
emphasizing the fact that mortality is the probationary state, and
that the individual achievements or forfeitures in this life will
be of eternal effect, notwithstanding the merciful provision made
for advancement in the hereafter. The celestial kingdom of glory and
eternal communion with God and Christ is provided for those who obey
the Gospel when they learn of it. The lower or terrestrial state will
be the inheritance of such as "received not the testimony of Jesus in
the flesh, but afterwards received it." Yet lower is the telestial
abode of the less deserving; and deepest of all, the awful banishment
of the sons of perdition. (See D&C 76.)



-- 73 --

THE SPIRIT WORLD

Paradise and Hades

IT is a common practise to designate the place, the time, or the state
of existence following death as the hereafter; indeed, that term is
defined by lexicographers as the future life. The application is a
broad one, too broad to be regarded as descriptive except in the matter
of sequence.

Nevertheless, the expression is a convenient one, and is practically
synonymous with the poet's phrase "the great unknown." Its usage is
a confession of uncertainty or ignorance of what awaits us beyond;
and as to duration it embraces eternity, without divisions or periods
either as to condition or time. Holy Scripture is more definite, and
like Paul's commanding call, on Mars' Hill, to the worshipers of "the
unknown God," summons us to hear and learn the truth.

The world of the disembodied was known to the Hebrews as Sheol and
to the Greeks as Hades; and these terms, meaning the unseen or
unknown world, are translated Hell in our version of the Old and New
Testaments, respectively. In a few New Testament passages referring to
the state of the damned, Gehenna is the original of the term Hell.

"Paradise" first appears in the Bible in the Savior's utterance from
the cross promising the penitent thief a place there (Luke 23:43); and
the word occurs subsequently but twice. Paradise is distinctively the
abode of the righteous during their period of disembodiment, and is in
contrast with the "prison" tenanted by disobedient spirits. (1 Peter
3:19, 20.)

The several places or states mentioned above have reference to the
existence of disembodied spirits, and therefore embrace only that
period of the hereafter between death and resurrection. Beyond the
spirit world, with its Paradise and its prison, lies the eternity of
the resurrected state, in the which men shall endure, with spirits and
bodies reunited, redeemed from the thraldom of death, and, according to
the record of their mortal lives, saved or condemned.

The hereafter, therefore, comprises severally the disembodied and the
reembodied existences of the individual; and these must be distinctly
segregated in any rational conception of the future life based on
Scripture. Read the testimony of the prophet Alma:

"Now concerning the state of the soul between death and the
resurrection. Behold, it has been made known unto me, by an angel, that
the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal
body; yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are
taken home to that God who gave them life.

"And then shall it come to pass that the spirits of those who are
righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called
paradise; a state of rest; a state of peace, where they shall rest from
all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow, etc.

"And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of the wicked,
yea, who are evil; for behold, they have no part nor portion of the
Spirit of the Lord; for behold, they chose evil works rather than
good; therefore the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take
possession of their house; and these shall be cast out into outer
darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth;
and this because of their own iniquity; being led captive by the will
of the devil.

"Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked; yea, in darkness,
and a state of awful, fearful, looking for the fiery indignation of the
wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the
righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection." (Book of
Mormon, Alma 40:11-14.)

It is evident that the final judgment of mankind is to be reserved
until after the resurrection; while in another sense judgment is
manifest in the segregation of the disembodied, for in the intermediate
state like will seek like, the clean and good finding companionship
with their kind, and the wicked congregating through the natural
attraction of evil for evil.

The essential features of the intermediate state are deducible from
the Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Read Luke 16:19-31.
While it would be critically unfair to affirm doctrinal principles on
the incidents of an ordinary story, we cannot admit that Christ would
teach falsely even in parable; and therefore we accept as true our
Lord's portrayal of conditions in the spirit world. That righteous
and unrighteous dwell apart between death and resurrection is made
clear. Paradise, or, as the Jews liked to designate that blessed abode,
"Abraham's bosom," is not the place of final glory, any more than the
hell to which the rich man's spirit went is the final habitation of
the lost. Between the two, however, "there is a great gulf fixed." To
that intermediate state of existence men's works do follow them (Rev.
14:13); and the dead shall find that in their bodiless state their
condition is that for which they have prepared themselves while in the
flesh.



-- 74 --

HOW LONG SHALL HELL LAST?

The Duration of Punishment

WE are accustomed to speak broadly of salvation and condemnation in
the hereafter as reward and punishment, respectively. The Scriptures
justify this usage, and furthermore make plain the fact that reward or
punishment will be a natural and inevitable heritage resulting from
individual righteousness or sin.

The Eternal Judge of the quick and the dead is bound by His own
inviolable laws--and no less so than by His Divine attributes of
justice and mercy--to exalt every deserving soul, and to validate and
enforce the loss and suffering consequent to wilful wickedness. Verily,
the Lord God is no respecter of persons, condoning the unexpiated sins
of favorites and inflicting punishment upon others for but equal guilt.
Such an unbelievable condition would mean injustice and vindictiveness.

Everlasting blessedness is thoroughly consistent with justice. The
souls that attain to salvation and eternal life "shall have glory added
upon their heads forever and ever." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 66.) But
the thought of never-ending punishment as the fate of all who die in
their sins is repugnant; and rightly so.

As reward for righteous living is to be proportionate to deserts, so
punishment for sin must be graded according to the offense. The purpose
of punishment is disciplinary, reformatory, and in support of justice.
God's mercy is as truly manifest in the expiatory suffering, which He
allows, as in the endless joys of salvation, which He bestows.

As to the duration of punishment, we may take assurance that it
shall be measured to the individual in just accordance with the sum
of his iniquity. That every sentence for sin must be interminable
is as directly opposed to a rational conception of justice as it is
contradictory of the revealed Word of God.

It was mercifully foreordained that even the prisoners thronging the
pit should in due time be visited (Isa. 24:21-22), and be offered means
of amelioration (42:7). David sang right rapturously, "Thou wilt not
leave my soul in hell." (Psa. 16:10.)

True, the Scriptures speak of endless punishment, and depict
everlasting burnings, eternal damnation, and the sufferings incident
to unquenchable fire, as features of the judgment reserved for the
wicked. But none of these awful possibilities are anywhere in Scripture
declared to be the unending fate of the individual sinner.

Blessing or punishment ordained of God is eternal, for He is eternal,
and eternal are all His ways. His is a system of endless and eternal
punishment, for it will always exist as the place or condition provided
for the rebellious and disobedient; but the penalty as visited upon the
individual will terminate when through repentance and expiation the
necessary reform has been effected and the uttermost farthing paid.

Even to hell there is an exit as well as an entrance; and when sentence
has been served, commuted perhaps by repentance and its attendant
works, the prison doors shall open and the penitent captive be afforded
opportunity to comply with the law, which he aforetime violated. But
the prison remains, and the eternal decree prescribing punishment
for the offender stands unrepealed. So it is even with the penal
institutions established by man.

To this effect hath the Lord spoken in the current age: "I am Alpha
and Omega, Christ the Lord; yea, even I am He, the beginning and
the end, the Redeemer of the world. . . . And surely every man must
repent or suffer, for I, God, am endless. Wherefore, I revoke not
the judgments which I shall pass, but woes shall go forth, weeping,
wailing and gnashing of teeth, yea, to those who are found on my left
hand. Nevertheless it is not written that there shall be no end to
this torment, but it is written endless torment. Again, it is written
eternal damnation . . . for, behold, I am endless, and the punishment
which is given from my hand, is endless punishment, for Endless is
my name. Wherefore eternal punishment is God's punishment. Endless
punishment is God's punishment."

The revelation continues: "Therefore I command you to repent--repent
lest I smite you by the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by
my anger, and your sufferings be sore--how sore you know not! how
exquisite you know not! yea, how hard to bear you know not! For behold,
I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer
if they would repent. But if they would not repent, they must suffer
even as I, which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of
all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to
suffer both body and spirit: and would that I might not drink the
bitter cup and shrink--Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I
partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men." (D&C
19.)

The inhabitants of the telestial world--the lowest of the kingdoms of
glory prepared for resurrected souls, shall include those "who are
thrust down to hell" and "who shall not be redeemed from the devil
until the last resurrection." (76:82-85.) And though these may be
delivered from hell and attain to a measure of glory with possibilities
of progression, yet their lot shall be that of "servants of the Most
High, but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without
end." (v. 112.) Deliverance from hell is not admittance to heaven.



-- 75 --

SALVATION AND EXALTATION

Advancement Worlds Without End

IMPROVEMENT, advancement, progression, here and hereafter, are basal
principles of the Divine plan with respect to the souls of men.
Earth-life with its varied experiences of joy and sorrow, of success
and failure, of temptation and resistance thereto, all the bitter and
the sweet of mortal existence may be turned to eventual good in the
development of the individual soul.

We hold as reasonable, scriptural, and true, that advancement in
righteous achievement and power for good shall be a feature of the
future life, both during the period of disembodiment and in and after
the resurrection from the dead. Nevertheless, ability to progress in
eternity is largely conditioned by the thoroughness of our education in
the school of mortality.

Our status in the hereafter will be found to be primarily dependent
upon the merits or demerits of our life here; and beyond as in this
world ability to advance will be varied and graded. Wilful neglect
here may forfeit both ability and opportunity there. Hence, though in
the mercy of God the Gospel is being preached in the spirit world,
and vicarious administration of the essential and saving ordinances
is provided for, to the end that the repentant dead "might be judged
according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit"
(1 Peter 4:6), disembodied spirits may be incapacitated and ineligible
even for repentance, and for the benefits of baptism administered in
their behalf upon earth, until they shall have learned in the spirit
world the primary lessons that they ignored or rejected while in the
flesh. To this effect spake Alma the prophet:

"There was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore
this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God;
a time to prepare for that endless state, which has been spoken of by
us, which is after the resurrection of the dead." (Book of Mormon, Alma
12:24.)

"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea,
behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

"And now as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses,
therefore, I beseech of you, that ye do not procrastinate the day of
your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is
given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time
while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness, wherein there
can be no labor performed.

"Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will
repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that
same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out
of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in
that eternal world.

"For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance, even
until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the
devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath
withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all
power over you." (34:32-35.)

Some degree of salvation shall be granted to every soul who has not
forfeited all claim thereto. But Salvation as a graded state provided
for all who have not sinned unto the incurring of the dread penalty of
the second death is far exceeded by the Exaltation provided for the
valiant righteous. Of such as are worthy of a measure of salvation, yet
who have failed to lay hold on the higher blessings and privileges of
eternal life, including the perpetuity of the family relation through
the sealing ordinances administered under the authority of the Holy
Priesthood, title to which is to be won by individual effort by and
through the laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lord
has spoken in this dispensation, saying that they "are appointed angels
in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those
who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight
of glory. For these angels did not abide my law, therefore they cannot
not be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation,
in their saved condition, to all eternity, and from henceforth are not
Gods, but are angels of God, for ever and ever." (D&C 132:16-17.)

Progression in eternity is to be along well defined lines; and thus
the inheritors of any specific order or kingdom of glory may advance
forever without attaining the particular exaltation belonging to a
different kingdom or order. Of those who shall belong to the Telestial
or lowest kingdom of glory we read:

"But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the
Telestial world, that they were as innumerable as the stars in the
firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the sea shore; and heard the
voice of the Lord, saying: These all shall bow the knee, and every
tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne for ever and ever.
For they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall
receive according to his own works, his own dominion, in the mansions
which are prepared. And they shall be servants of the Most High, but
where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end."
(76:109-112.)



-- 76 --

DEITY AS EXALTED HUMANITY

Man Is a God in Embryo

WE read of our Lord's presence at a winter festival in Jerusalem, the
Feast of Dedication. As He stood in Solomon's Porch He was assailed
with questions from some of the more prominent Jews; and His answers so
stirred their priestly wrath that they essayed to stone Him to death.
Read John 10:22-42. The chief cause of their anger lay in Christ's
affirmation of His actual relationship to the Father as the veritable
Son of God. To the assault of the infuriated and sin-blinded Jews Jesus
responded with these words: "Many good works have I showed you from my
Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?" And the answering
howl of the mob was: "For a good work we stone thee not; but for
blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God."

Blasphemy was the blackest crime in the Mosaic category; and the
prescribed penalty was death by stoning. The essence of this capital
offense lay in falsely claiming for one's self or attributing to man
the authority belonging to God, or in ascribing to Deity unworthy
attributes. Jesus had proclaimed to the angry Jews His inherent power
to grant eternal life unto all who would believe on Him and do the
things He taught. Hence the frightful charge of blasphemy hurled at the
Son of God, who spake as the Father gave commandment.

Our Lord reminded them that even human judges of their own,
being empowered by Divine authority and therefore acting in the
administration of justice as representatives of Deity, were called gods
(see Psalm 82:1, 6); and then, with sublime pertinence asked: "Say ye
of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou
blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?"

The actuality of the relationship between Jesus the Son and God the
Father as set forth in the Scriptures cited is in accord with Scripture
in its entirety; and that humankind are veritably children of that same
Father, Jesus Christ being the Firstborn of the spirits, and therefore
our Elder Brother, is attested by the same high and unquestionable
authority.

The Jews denied and blasphemously decried the Godship of Christ because
He was to them a man, the reputed son of a carpenter, and His mother,
brothers and sisters were known to them as familiar townsfolk. Christ
emphatically affirmed that He was following His Father's footsteps,
as witness His words on another occasion, when the Jews tried to kill
Him because He had said "that God was his Father, making himself equal
with God. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the
Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son
likewise." Read John 5:17-23. In the verse following, Jesus declared
that unto Him the Father showed all things that He, the Father, did.
In connection with the same occurrence He declared, "My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work."

It is plain that Jesus Christ recognized the literal relationship of
Sonship which He bore to the Father; and moreover, that He was pursuing
a course leading to His own exaltation, a state then future, which
course was essentially that which His Father had trodden aforetime. To
the Father's supremacy He repeatedly testified, and expressly stated,
"My Father is greater than I." (John 14:28.)

Jesus Christ lived and died a mortal Being, though distinguished in
certain essential attributes from all other mortals because of His
status as the Only Begotten of God His Father in the flesh. Yet Jesus
Christ has attained the supreme exaltation of Godship, and has won His
place at the right hand of the Eternal Father. Ponder the significance
of His words: "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given
to the Son to have life in himself." (John 5:26.) The teachings of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on this affirmation by the
Lord Jesus were set forth by Joseph Smith the prophet in this wise:

"As the Father hath power in Himself, so hath the Son power in Himself,
to lay down His life and take it again, so He has a body of His own.
The Son doeth what He hath seen the Father do: then the Father hath
some day laid down His life and taken it again; so He has a body of His
own."

And further: "God Himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted
Man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret. If
the veil was rent to-day, and the Great God who holds this world in its
orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by His power, was to
make Himself visible--I say, if you were to see Him to-day, you would
see Him like a man in form--like yourselves in all the person, image,
and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion,
image, and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked,
talked and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes with
another."

We read further: "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible
as man's; the Son also." (D&C 130:22.)

Our belief as to the relationship of humanity to Deity is thus
expressed:

"As man is God once was; as God is man may be."



-- 77 --

BE YE PERFECT

Is It Possible?

SOME knowledge of the attributes of God is essential to intelligent
worship. Granted that finite man cannot comprehend infinity; yet
consistency forbids us carrying this self-evident truth to the extent
of saying that because God is infinite man can have no conception of
His nature or character.

If God be but a vast formless nonentity, filling all space and
therefore illimitable, substanceless, devoid of body and parts,
incapable of emotions and passions, He is not my Father, I am not His
son. To the contrary, the Scriptures affirm that humankind are the
children of God, fashioned after His likeness in both spirit and body;
and conversely, He must be of definite form and feature, possessed of a
body perfect in all its parts, and He likewise perfect in all His acts.

On the night of the betrayal, while comforting the sorrow-stricken
Eleven by solemn and lofty discourse, Jesus said unto them: "Ye believe
in God, believe also in me. . . . If ye had known me, ye should have
known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen
him."

The faithful Philip broke in with an appealing request: "Lord, shew
us the Father, and it sufficeth us." The Lord's response was an
unequivocal avowal that He was His Father's exact presentment, so that
whosoever had seen Him had seen unto what and whom the Father was
like. Note the explicit and withal pathetic words of the heavy-hearted
Christ: "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest
thou then, Shew us the Father?" See John 14:1-10.

Jesus Christ, the Man, was and is in the express likeness of His
Father's Person; and, since the consummation of His mission in the
flesh and His victory over death whereby comes the resurrection, He has
been exalted to the Father's state of glory and perfection. See Heb.
1:1-4.

Though the thoughts and activities of God be as far above the ways
of men as the heavens are above the earth, they are nevertheless of
a kind with human yearnings and aspirations, so far as these be the
fruitage of holiness, purity, and righteous endeavor. Though our planet
be but as a drop of the ocean compared with the many greater orbs,
it is not the least of all; and what we have come to know of other
worlds is primarily based on analogy with the phenomena of our own.
Notwithstanding that Deity is perfect and humanity grossly imperfect,
we may learn much of the Higher by a study of the lower in its true and
normal phases.

As an impressive and profound climax to one division of the sublime
discourse, The Sermon on the Mount, the Master said: "Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt.
5:48.)

What led up to this utterance, calling for the explanatory "therefore"
by which the relation of premises and conclusion is expressed? A
studious reading of the entire chapter gives answer. Following the
Beatitudes and certain well defined admonitions and precepts, the
Lord made plain the distinction between the Law under which Israel
had professedly lived from Moses down, and the higher requirements of
the Gospel taught by Christ. Again and again the introductory, "Ye
have heard that it was said by them of old time," is followed by the
authoritative, "But I say unto you." Obedience to the Gospel, which
comprises all the essentials of the Law, was enjoined as the means by
which man may become perfect, even in the sense in which the Father in
heaven is perfect.

It is a significant fact that when Jesus Christ, a resurrected and
glorified Being, visited the Nephite branch of the House of Israel
on the Western Continent, He included Himself with the Father as the
existent ideal of perfection, as thus appears: "Therefore I would that
ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is
perfect." (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 12:48).

The road to exaltation and perfection is opened through the Gospel of
Christ. We cannot rationally construe our Lord's admonition as implying
an impossibility. We are not required to assume that man in mortality
can attain the perfection of an exalted and glorified personage, such
as either the Father or Jesus Christ. However, man may be perfect in
his sphere as more advanced intelligences may be in their several
spheres; yet the relative perfection of the lower is vastly inferior
to that of the higher. We can conceive of a college freshman attaining
perfection in his class; yet the honors of the upper classman are
beyond; and graduation, though to him remote, is assured if be do but
maintain his high standing to the end.

After all, individual perfection is relative and must be gaged by the
law operative upon us. In 1832 the Lord thus spake through His prophet
Joseph Smith: "And again, verily I say unto you, that which is governed
by law is also preserved by law, and perfected and sanctified by the
same." (D&C 88:34.)

The law of the Gospel is a perfect law; and the sure effect of full
obedience thereto is perfection. Of those who attain exaltation in the
celestial kingdom Christ has declared: "These are they who are just
men made perfect through Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, who
wrought out this perfect Atonement through the shedding of his own
blood." (76:69.)



-- 78 --

THE GLORY OF GOD IS INTELLIGENCE

Knowledge Is Power in Heaven as on Earth

IN a revelation to Abraham the Lord made known the existence of spirits
appointed to take bodies upon the earth. These spirits were designated
as "the intelligences that were organized before the world was"; and
elsewhere in the same record spirits are called intelligences. See
Pearl of Great Price, pp. 65, 66.

This usage of the term has gained a place in modern English, as
lexicographers agree. The Standard Dictionary gives us the following as
one of the specific definitions of intelligence: "An intelligent being,
especially a spirit not embodied; as the intelligences of the unseen
world; the Supreme Intelligence."

The word is current as connoting (1) the mental capacity to know and
understand; (2) knowledge itself, or the thing that is known and
understood; and (3) the person who knows and understands. Beside these
there are other minor usages.

In the revelation above cited the Lord impressed upon His ancient
prophet and seer the fact that some of the spirits were more
intelligent than others; and then proclaimed His own Divine supremacy
by the declaration: "I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than
they all. . . . I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath,
in all wisdom and prudence, over all the intelligences thine eyes have
seen from the beginning. I came down in the beginning in the midst of
all the intelligences thou hast seen."

In such wise did God make known anciently the power by virtue of which
He is supreme over all the intelligences that exist--the fact that He
is more intelligent than any and all others. In the heavens as upon the
earth the aphorism holds good that Knowledge is Power, providing that
by "knowledge" we mean application, and not merely mental possession,
of truth. In a revelation through Joseph Smith the prophet given in
1833, the character of Divine authority and power is thus sublimely
summarized: "The Glory of God is Intelligence." (D&C 93:36.)

The context of the passage shows that the intelligence therein referred
to as an attribute of Deity is spiritual light and truth; and that
man may attain to a measure of this exalting light and truth is thus
made certain: "He that keepeth His commandments receiveth truth and
light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things. . . .
Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither
indeed can be. All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has
placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also."

The antithesis of light and truth is darkness and falsehood; the
former is summarized as righteousness, the latter as evil. Reverting
to the figure of mortality as a school for embodied spirits, we must
admit that every pupil who ignores or rejects the truth as presented
to him through the revealed word and his own experience is culpably
responsible for his ignorance.

Not all knowledge is of equal worth. The knowledge that constitutes the
wisdom of the heavens is all embraced in the Gospel as taught by Jesus
Christ; and wilful ignorance of this, the highest type of knowledge,
will relegate its victim to the inferior order of intelligences.
Another latter-day Scripture may be cited as an inspired generalization
embodying an eternal truth relating to our subject: "It is impossible
for a man to be saved in ignorance." (D&C 131:6.)

Can it be otherwise? If a man be ignorant of the terms on which
salvation is predicated he is unable to comply therewith, and
consequently fails to attain what otherwise might have been his eternal
gain. The ignorance that thus condemns is responsible ignorance,
involving wilful and sinful neglect. Lack of the saving knowledge that
one has had no opportunity to acquire is but a temporary deficiency;
for Eternal Justice provides means of education beyond the grave. Every
one of us will be judged according to the measure of light and truth
we have had opportunity to acquire. Even the untutored heathen who
has lived up to his highest conceptions of right shall find means of
progression. Part of the blessing to follow the second advent of Christ
is thus stated: "And then shall the heathen nations be redeemed, and
they that knew no law shall have part in the first resurrection; and it
shall be tolerable for them." (45:54.)

The intelligence that saves comprises knowing and doing what is
required by the Gospel of Christ; and such intelligence will endure
beyond death. "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto
in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a
person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through
his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the
advantage in the world to come." (130:18, 19.)

Intelligence as to Godly things, which are summarized in the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, leads to an ever increasing understanding and
comprehension of God Himself, and this is knowledge supreme; for as the
praying Christ affirmed: "This is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John
17:3.)



-- 79 --

WHEN IGNORANCE IS SIN

Opportunity Entails Accountability

IT is an aphorism of the courts that ignorance of the law is no valid
excuse for crime. If this rule be just it must rest upon the assumption
that knowledge of what the law demands or forbids is an inherent and
natural possession, or that it is so readily accessible that no one is
justified in failing to become informed.

The normal individual of a civilized community requires no specific
instruction to know that theft, falsification, drunkenness, adultery
or murder is fundamentally wrong, since each of these crimes is
a violation of his conscience and a pronounced offense against
public weal. If, however, he enter restricted territory within
which registration is legally demanded, and he, not knowing of the
requirement, fails to register, he is technically a law-breaker subject
to the penalties prescribed. True, his offense is that of omission or
non-compliance and his ignorance may or may not be taken into account
as a mitigating circumstance, this depending, perhaps, upon local
conditions and the discretion of the magistrate as warranting leniency
or demanding the full measure of punishment.

As thus in the ordinary affairs of men so with regard to the laws
of God, framed for the governance of souls and providing for their
salvation. One's inherent consciousness warns him against criminal
actions but fails to inform him of certain definite requirements,
without compliance with which he is debarred from admission to the
Kingdom of God. There is no inborn knowledge by which man knows
that baptism by immersion in water, and the higher baptism of the
Spirit through the imposition of hands are essential to salvation;
nevertheless our Lord's words to Nicodemus are alike binding upon every
soul: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the Kingdom of God." (John 3:5.)

Is it less reasonable with respect to spiritual requirements than in
secular matters to expect of every one an acquaintance with the law
as it applies to himself, providing, of course, such knowledge is
accessible to all? But some may honestly assert inability to apprehend
the necessity of obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel,
even though they had informed themselves as to the letter of the
prescribed conditions. Such may ask: Are men to suffer penalty in the
hereafter because they cannot understand what is required of them in
mortality? The degree of their culpability is to be determined by the
fundamental cause of their ineptitude in matters spiritual. Failure to
comprehend may be due to bias or to lack of desire to know. The record
of our Lord's ministry presents an instance in point, coupled with a
remedy for the spiritual disorder by which ignorance was fostered and
truth ignored.

It was at the Feast of Tabernacles. Read John 7:14-18. The Jews were
greatly troubled over His teachings; a few believed, more doubted and
questioned, and some were so resentful as to want to kill Him. The
more honest in the multitude desired to know for themselves whether
the Master spoke by the power and authority of God or as a man, for as
a man only was He generally regarded. "Jesus answered them, and said,
My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his
will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I
speak of myself."

Are you unable to realize that baptism is essential to salvation?
Perhaps the cause lies in the fact that you have never developed the
essential condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; or, perchance,
you have never repented of your sins. Faith and repentance, as the
Scriptures aver, are prerequisites to effective baptism; and it is as
unreasonable to expect a faithless unrepentant sinner to comprehend the
essentiality of baptism as to expect one untrained in the rudiments of
arithmetic to understand algebra.

Wilful ignorance of Gospel requirements is sin. Man is untrue to his
Divine lineage and birthright of reason when he turns away from the
truth, or deliberately chooses to walk in darkness while the illumined
path is open to his tread. Positive rejection of the truth is even
graver than passive inattention or neglect. Yet to every one is given
the right of choice and the power of agency, with the certainty of his
meeting the natural and inevitable consequence.

We learn of three principal states or graded kingdoms into which souls
shall enter under Divine judgment--the Celestial, the Terrestrial, and
the Telestial--and the inheritance of each soul shall be determined by
his measure of obedience to the laws of God, as the Lord's revelation
through the prophet Joseph Smith attests: "For he who is not able to
abide the law of a celestial kingdom cannot abide a celestial glory.
And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom cannot abide a
terrestrial glory. He who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom
cannot abide a telestial glory; therefore he is not meet for a kingdom
of glory." (D&C 88:22-24.)



-- 80 --

KNOWING AND DOING

Knowledge May Help to Condemn of Save

BY way of summary and climax to His lofty yet simple, and withal
unparalleled discourse, since named The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
Christ thus spake: "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,
and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house
upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded
upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his
house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and
the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was
the fall of it." (Matt. 7:24-27; compare Luke 6:47-49.)

This Sermon has stood through the centuries in a class of its own. The
address is before us as a living preceptor thrilled with the spirit
of sincerity and action as opposed to wordy profession and careless
neglect. The closing sentences quoted above express, in language suited
alike to child and sage, a generalization of deep import--that actions
not words alone, works not empty belief, doing not merely knowing what
to do, are conditions indispensable to the salvation of the soul.

Many of those who were so signally privileged and blessed as to
personally hear the Master were astonished at His doctrine and deeply
moved by the simple and convincing presentation: "For he taught them
as one having authority, and not as the scribes." (Matt. 7:29.) Our
Lord was qualified to teach as He did, not only, by reason of the
sufficing fact that He bore the Father's commission, but because He had
done and was doing just what He required of others. The authority of
Divine precept was united in Him with that of unimpeachable example.
The burden of all scriptural direction relating to the attainment of a
place in the Kingdom of God is: Do the works that are prescribed.

Ever consistent, unchangeable as the Father Himself, our Lord affirmed
the same necessity of works when He ministered among the Nephites on
the American continent soon after His ascension from the Mount of
Olives in Palestine. Having declared that His doctrine was the doctrine
of the Father, the Resurrected Christ thus proclaimed:

"Whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and
they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God. And whoso believeth
not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the
Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also, and
unto him will the Father bear record of me; for he will visit him with
fire and with the Holy Ghost. . . . And again I say unto you, Ye must
repent and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye
can in no wise inherit the kingdom of God. Verily, verily, I say unto
you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this, buildeth
upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.
And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for
my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock,
but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell standeth
open to receive such, when the floods come and the winds beat upon
them." (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11:33-40.)

The accumulated experience of the world sustains the soundness of the
principle thus emphasized in the Savior's teachings. An alien immigrant
to our shores may desire to attain the full status of citizenship; but
desire alone will never enfranchise him. He must first learn the legal
requirements, and then comply therewith in every detail.

A student of the Scriptures may have learned, and that to his own
complete conviction, that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance of
sin, baptism by water and of the Spirit, are the prescribed conditions
of citizenship in the Kingdom of God; but that knowledge serves only to
make him the more blameworthy if he fails to act. Even a letter-perfect
memorization of all Scripture if unaccompanied by obedience to the laws
and ordinances of the Gospel is invalid as title to salvation, and does
but intensify the guilt incident to wilful neglect.

Opportunity to avail one's self of the saving provisions of the Gospel
may not always be within individual reach, for neglect may forfeit the
ability to repent. The Word of the Lord to the world today is thus
proclaimed: "I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of
allowance. Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of
the Lord shall be forgiven, and he that repents not, from him shall be
taken even the light which he has received; for my Spirit shall not
always strive with man, saith the Lord of Hosts." (D&C 1:31-33.)



-- 81 --

WILL MANY OR FEW BE SAVED?

Our Place Beyond the Grave

IN the course of our Lord's last journey from Galilee to Jerusalem,
which proved to be His solemn march to Calvary and the tomb, He
threaded the towns and villages of the region, teaching and preaching
by the way. Multitudes were impressed by His lofty precepts and His
simple exposition of plain, every-day religion; and many questions were
submitted to Him, some based on curiosity or even less worthy motives,
others inspired by genuine interest.

"Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved?" (Luke
13:23.)

The inquiry was and is of great moment. We observe as a striking and
significant fact, that while the Lord nowise treated the query as
improper, yet He gave no specific or direct answer. Indeed, so far
as the record enables us to judge He purposely left the question
unanswered; though He gave a most impressive sermon in connection
therewith. Note again the question, and part of the response:

"Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said
unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto
you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able."

As the succeeding verses tell, the instruction was enlarged upon to
show that neglect or procrastination in obeying the requirements of
salvation may result in dire jeopardy to the soul. Moreover, the people
were warned that their Israelitish lineage would not save them; for
many who were not of the covenant people would believe and be admitted
to the Lord's presence, while unworthy Israelites would be thrust out.
So is it that "There are last which shall be first, and there are first
which shall be last." (Verse 30.)

Uplifting and invaluable as this teaching is, it has, nevertheless,
but an indirect bearing upon the clean-cut question: Will many or but
few be saved? The people to whom Jesus was speaking were incapable
of understanding a plain answer to the question, and would have been
misled thereby. For, had He said "Few" they would have construed the
reply to mean that only a few, and they the Jews, would find a place in
"Abraham's bosom," while all the rest would be consigned to sheol. Had
the Lord answered "Many" they would have taken His word to mean that
the great majority shall attain supreme bliss in the kingdom of heaven,
and only a few are to find a place in hell. Either inference is untrue.

Later, on the night of the betrayal, the Lord said to the sorrowful
Apostles: "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so
I would have told you." Here we find conclusive refutation of the
old and still current superstition, that but two states, conditions,
or places--heaven and hell--are established for souls in eternity.
Salvation is graded; and every soul shall inherit the condition for
which he is prepared.

Paul comprehended this great truth, as appears from his declaration
that in the resurrection some souls shall be of the celestial order,
comparable in glory to the sun; others shall attain but a terrestrial
state, of which the brightness of the moon is typical; while the graded
conditions of others shall be as the varying light of the stars. See
1 Cor. 15:41, 42. Here we have two kingdoms of glory distinctively
specified--the celestial and the terrestrial, and a third to which no
name is given.

Modern revelation is in strict accord with Holy Writ of ancient record,
and is explicit in affirming the graded conditions that await the souls
of men. As made known in 1832 through the prophet Joseph Smith (see
D&C, Sec. 76) there are three main kingdoms or degrees of glory in the
hereafter--(1) the Celestial, of which the sun is relatively typical,
(2) the Terrestrial, as far below the first as the moon is inferior
to the sun in effulgence, and (3) the Telestial, which is the kingdom
referred to by Paul but without name.

The Celestial inheritance is for those who have accepted the Gospel of
Christ and have rendered valiant service in the cause of righteousness;
those who have yielded obedience to all the laws and ordinances of the
Gospel.

Into the Terrestrial order shall enter those who have failed to lay
hold on the privileges of eternal life while in the flesh; "honorable
men of the earth" perhaps, according to human standard, yet blinded "by
the craftiness" of false teachers, false philosophy, science falsely so
called. These shall inherit glory, but not a fulness thereof.

The Telestial state is provided for those who have rejected the Gospel
and testimony of Christ, and who merit condemnation. "These are they
who are liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and
whosoever loves and makes a lie." Among them shall be varied degrees,
even as the stars differ in glory.

Far below this condition is that of the sons of perdition--those who
have sinned in full consciousness, those who have shed innocent blood.
The comparative few who reach this state of extreme degradation are
doomed to dwell "with the devil and his angels in eternity, where their
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, which is their torment."

Thus, those who attain even the Telestial state are saved from the
depths of perdition; while the inheritors of the higher glories are
saved from the condition of the less exalted.

Consider anew the question asked of Christ: "Lord, are there few that
be saved?"

And the answer revealed in the present age: "But behold, and lo, we saw
the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were
as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand
upon the sea shore." (D&C 76:109.)



-- 82 --

THE GRAVES SHALL BE OPENED

And the Dead Shall Live

"WHY should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should
raise the dead?" (Acts 26:8.)

So asked Paul of King Agrippa when arraigned before him a prisoner in
bonds approximately thirty years after our Lord's resurrection. At that
time the Apostles and the saints generally suffered severe persecution
because of their persistent testimony of the Christ, crucified and
risen. The powerful Sadducees denied the actuality of a resurrection;
their opponents, the Pharisees, professed a belief in the resurrection,
but all save those who had been converted to Christianity through
faith and repentance denounced the solemn testimonies of Christ's
resurrection as fiction and falsehood.

That the spirit of Jesus Christ returned from the abode of the
disembodied and reentered the body till then reposing in the sepulchre
is specifically affirmed in Holy Writ. In the early dawn of that most
memorable Sunday in history He was seen by Mary Magdalene and then by
others, some of whom were permitted to reverently touch His feet. In
the evening He stood amongst the Apostles and quieted their fears by
the assuring demonstration: "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I
myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as
ye see me have." (Luke 24:39.)

That the body they beheld was the identical body in which the Lord had
lived amongst them was evident from the presence of the wounds made by
the crucifiers. To further assure the devoted company that He was no
shadowy form, no immaterial being, but a living Personage with bodily
organs, internal as well as outward, He asked: "Have ye here any meat?"
They brought broiled fish and other food, and He "did eat before them."

Christ was the first of all men to emerge from the tomb with spirit
and body reunited, a resurrected immortalized Soul. Therefore, is He
rightly called "the firstfruits of them that slept," as also "the
firstborn from the dead," and "the first begotten of the dead." (1 Cor.
15:20; Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5.) The victory over death thus achieved by
the foreordained Redeemer of the race was positively and abundantly
foretold. That a literal resurrection shall come to all who have or
shall have lived and died on earth is quite as strongly attested in
Scripture.

Two general resurrections are specified; these we may distinguish as
the first and the final, or as the resurrection of the just and that of
the unjust respectively. Hear the words of Christ Himself relating to
the dead and their assured coming forth: "For the hour is coming, in
the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall
come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life;
and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."
(John 5:28, 29.)

The first resurrection began with that of Jesus Christ and was
continued thereafter as we read: "And the graves were opened; and many
bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves
after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto
many." (Matt. 27:52, 53.) The resurrection of the just is to be made
general at the time of the Lord's approaching advent in glory; but a
fixed gradation is established as Paul averred: "But now is Christ
risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For
since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But
every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they
that are Christ's at his coming." (1 Cor. 15:20-23.)

The Millennium is to be inaugurated by a glorious redemption of the
righteous from the power of death; and of them it is written: "Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the
second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years." (Rev. 20:6.) Of the
unworthy we read in thrilling contrast: "But the rest of the dead lived
not again until the thousand years were finished."

Of the imminence of His coming and in further specification of the
distinction between the resurrection of the just and that of the unjust
the Lord has said through revelation in the current age: "Hearken ye,
for, behold, the great day of the Lord is nigh at hand. For the day
cometh that the Lord shall utter his voice out of heaven; the heavens
shall shake and the earth shall tremble, and the trump of God shall
sound both long and loud, and shall say to the sleeping nations, Ye
saints arise and live; ye sinners stay and sleep until I shall call
again." (D&C 43:17, 18.)

The Book of Mormon is explicit in description of the literal and
universal resurrection: "Now, there is a death which is called a
temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this
temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death; The
spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both
limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now
are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing
even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt.
Now this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond
and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and
even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but all
things shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the
body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ
the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one eternal
God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or
whether they be evil." (Alma 11:42-44.)



-- 83 --

RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

When Shall It Be?

THE eventual resurrection of every soul who has lived and died on earth
is a scriptural certainty. The resurrection consists of a literal
and material reembodiment of spirits, following their post-mortal
experience in the spirit world, whether this shall have been the
freedom and joy of Paradise or the restraint and remorse of the prison
house. We are destined to exist through the eternities beyond the
resurrection with spirit and body reunited. Only in such union is a
fulness of glory, opportunity, and achievement possible.

Thus spake the Lord Jesus Christ to the Church in 1833: "For man is
spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably
connected, receiveth a fulness of joy. And when separated, man cannot
receive a fulness of joy." (D&C 93:33-34.)

The word of ancient Scripture affirms beyond any reasonable question or
doubt that Jesus Christ, who has been exalted to authority and power
by the side of His and our Eternal Father, exists as a Spirit clothed
in an immortalized body of flesh and bones; for in such a body did He
manifest Himself after His resurrection; and in that same body did He
ascend from Olivet in the full sight of the apostles, while angelic
attendants solemnly proclaimed: "This same Jesus, which is taken up
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him
go into heaven." (Acts 1:11.)

When the Savior does so return, His body will be found to bear the
marks of the cruel piercings received on Calvary; and He shall say:
"These wounds are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of
my friends. I am he who was lifted up. I am Jesus that was crucified. I
am the Son of God." (D&C 45:52.)

The Eternal Father is likewise a Spirit tabernacled in an immortalized
"body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's." (D&C 130:22.)

So shall it be with every one of God's spirit-children who has been
born in flesh; he shall be resurrected in flesh; for, through the
infinite Atonement, physical death is but a temporary separation of
spirit from body.

But though a fulness of joy eternal is possible only to resurrected
beings, not all shall find that ineffable happiness. To the contrary,
many shall be consigned to anguish and remorse unspeakable, because
of their misdeeds in the body and their unrepentant state during the
period of disembodiment.

The resurrection from the dead was inaugurated by Christ, who had power
over death, and who laid down His body and took it up again as and when
He willed. (John 10:17-18.) Other resurrections of the righteous dead
followed. (Matt. 27:52-53; and Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 23:9-10.) This,
the first resurrection, or that of the just, has been in operation
since. John the Baptist, and both Peter and James, each of whom met a
martyr's death, have severally appeared upon the earth and ministered
in their resurrected bodies in these latter times. (D&C 13; and
27:8-13.) In this circumstance the continuance of service in the Holy
Priesthood, through both mortal and resurrected beings, is profoundly
exemplified.

Moroni, a Nephite prophet who died about 420 A.D., appeared as a
resurrected man to Joseph Smith in 1823, and at later times, and
committed to the latter-day prophet the original record from which the
Book of Mormon has been translated. (See Pearl of Great Price, p. 88.)

Christ affirmed that there would be a resurrection of the just and
a later resurrection of the unjust, or resurrection unto life and
damnation, respectively. (John 5:29.) Apostolic Scriptures are definite
in segregating individual resurrections, in that every man shall come
forth "in his own order" according to worthiness. (1 Cor. 15:20-23;
Rev. 20:4-6.)

The imminent but yet future advent of Jesus Christ is to be accompanied
by a general resurrection of the just, while the yet unregenerate dead
shall remain in their unrepentant state of duress until the Lord's
blessed reign of a thousand years on earth shall have passed. Then, in
a period following shall come the resurrection of the wicked.

The Book of Mormon makes plain that the resurrection of both just and
wicked shall precede the last judgment: "And they [the dead] shall
come forth, both small and great, and all shall stand before his bar,
being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death, which death
is a temporal death. And then cometh the judgment of the Holy One upon
them." (Mormon 9:13-14.)

No spirit shall remain disembodied longer than he deserves, or than
is requisite to accomplish the just and merciful purposes of God. The
resurrection of the just began with Christ; it has been in process and
shall continue till the Lord comes in glory, and thence onward through
the Millennium. The final resurrection, or that of the wicked, the
resurrection to condemnation, is to be yet later.



-- 84 --

REACHING AFTER THE DEAD

"Lest We Forget"

THE Latter-day Saints are deeply concerned in the identification
of their dead, back through the generations to the remotest extent
possible. This is exemplified by the persistent ardor of the people in
the compilation and preservation of genealogical records, the collating
of items of lineage, and the formulation of true family pedigrees, by
which the facts as to the relationship of ancestors to posterity may be
determined.

In this specific activity the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints is not working alone; for it is a notable fact that during the
last seven or eight decades, interest in genealogical matters has
developed to a degree theretofore unknown in modern history. The living
are reaching backward to learn of their dead. And in this movement, as
in many other distinguishing features of particular epochs, a power
superior to man's unguided purpose is operative.

The immediate motive in such undertakings may vary with the individual.
Many, doubtless, are eager to trace their pedigree to an illustrious
source according to human estimate of eminence; and of these some find
disappointment. As literature attests, many spurious pedigrees have
been fabricated. It was probably against such that Paul inveighed in
his terse admonition to both Timothy (1 Tim. 1:4) and Titus (3:9) and
through them to the Church, to eschew fables and endless genealogies,
from the discussion of which only contention would result.

The Latter-day Saints have a specific, and, indeed, unique purpose in
genealogical investigation. They seek not nobility nor aristocracy of
ancestry, but the facts, let the line lead where it may; and the shadow
of falsification would be fatal to their object.

Every believer in individual existence beyond the grave--and everybody
believes in or fears the certainty of such a state--hopes and yearns
for the blessed condition we call salvation. On the authority of
Scripture the Church proclaims that "through the Atonement of Christ,
all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of
the Gospel"; and conversely, that without compliance with the laws and
ordinances prescribed by Jesus Christ no man can have place in the
Kingdom of God.

Who can doubt this basal and portentous truth in the light of the
Savior's definite and unqualified affirmation to the learned Jew,
Nicodemus, respecting baptism by water and of the Spirit (see John
3:5), which requirements are among the fundamental laws and ordinances
of the Gospel?

In His comprehensive declaration our Lord made no discrimination of
classes, drew no distinction between the living and the dead. But what
of the unnumbered hosts who have lived and died without a knowledge of
the indispensability of baptism, or, though they knew yet never had
opportunity to be baptized by one holding the authority of the Holy
Priesthood to so administer? Are they irrecoverably lost? A frightful
thought!

When Death is reaping so rank a harvest through war, pestilence, and
famine, can we bear to believe it?

What of those beloved fathers, husbands, brothers, sons--yours or
some others'--who have fallen on the blooddrenched fields beyond the
seas--are they, because unbaptized, to be forever shut out from the
Kingdom of God, even though they have died martyrs to the cause of the
Divine purpose in the vindication of the liberties of mankind?

Verily, No! The living may be baptized for the dead, as they were in
earlier dispensations. Ponder the profound significance of Paul's
climacteric question relating to the actuality of the resurrection:
"Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead
rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" (1 Cor.
15:29.)

Those still in the flesh may officiate vicariously for their departed
progenitors; but for this service the genealogy of the dead is
indispensable. Furthermore, vicarious ordinances are administered only
in sacred Temples, reared, dedicated, and maintained for this ministry;
for so the Lord has directed.

Hence the Latter-day Saints are diligently seeking out the records of
their dead and are ministering for them in holy Temples. This we hold
to be the bounden duty of the living in behalf of the departed, the
discharge of which is as truly essential to our exaltation as to theirs.

"For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation,
as Paul says concerning the fathers 'that they without us cannot be
made perfect'; neither can we without our dead be made perfect." (D&C
128:15; see also Hebrews 11:40.)



-- 85 --

THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

Why do the Latter-day Saints Build Temples?

THE Latter-day Saints are known and distinguished as a Temple-building
people. They, in common with religious bodies in general, build houses
of worship, which for the different sects range from humble chapels to
great churches, imposing synagogs, spacious tabernacles and stately
cathedrals; but for none of these edifices is the claim advanced that
they are Temples in the true and specific sense of the term.

Be it remembered that Temples are not designed for purposes of general
assembly or congregational worship as are church buildings in general,
but for the administration of sacred ordinances. It is both interesting
and instructive to note that this characteristic applies alike to
heathen temples and to exclusive sanctuaries reared to the name of
the true and living God. In pagan temples of olden time, the altar of
sacrifice stood at the entrance; and though devotees thronged about the
altar, none but the officiating priests were admitted to the actual
shrine within the temple itself.

So also with the Tabernacle of the Congregation, which was a portable
sanctuary, constructed by the Israelites in their migration from Egypt;
and so with the imposing Temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel and Herod, in
each of which were spacious courts enclosed by outer walls, with altar
and other equipment, within which courts the people congregated; but
the sanctuary itself was a relatively small structure, reserved for the
most holy ordinances and ceremonial ministry. Similarly the Temples
erected and maintained by the Latter-day Saints are reserved for the
solemnizing of sacred ordinances, and are distinctively other than
meeting-houses used for public worship.

True to the Divine commission laid upon Israel, the Nephite colonists
erected a Temple on the Western Continent as early as 570 B. C., about
thirty years after their exodus from Jerusalem. The Book of Mormon
informs us that this structure was patterned after the Temple of
Solomon, though greatly inferior in size and splendor. (2 Nephi 5:16.)

The Latter-day Saints build Temples because they are commanded so to
do through the direct word of modern revelation; and in this divinely
imposed labor they recognize the purposes of God with respect to the
salvation and possible exaltation of mankind.

Through the Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ the eventual resurrection
of all who have lived and died is assured. This deliverance from the
power of death is an essential element of Redemption; and Christ is the
one and only Redeemer of the race.

By compliance with the prescribed terms as embodied in the Gospel,
men may be saved from the blighting effects of sin. This condition
constitutes Salvation; and since provision therefor is made effective
through the Atonement, Christ is the one and only Savior of the race.

Great and glorious as is the boon of Redemption from the grave, greater
and more glorious as are the conditions prescribed for the soul's
Salvation, the revealed Gospel of Jesus Christ provides yet more
transcendent blessings in the plan for Exaltation, whereby resurrected
man may advance from one stage of relative perfection to another, with
powers of eternal increase and never ending progression.

The laws and ordinances of the Gospel so far as required for
Salvation--specifically the individual exercise of saving faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, true repentance, submission to baptism by immersion
at the hands of one having authority, and to the higher baptism of the
Spirit by the authoritative imposition of hands for the bestowal of
the Holy Ghost--these requirements may be met and the saving effects
thereof secured by the living without Temples. But baptism for the
dead, as also the endowments incident to the Holy Priesthood with its
boundless possibilities of advancement, in short, administration of the
laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Christ requisite to Exaltation
in the eternal worlds, can be solemnized only in Temples erected and
dedicated for these holy purposes, for so the Lord hath declared. See
D&C 124:28-41.

As indicated above, Temples are not for the benefit of the living
alone. Existing Temples are maintained for the salvation and exaltation
of both living and dead; and the ordinances administered therein in
behalf of the dead outnumber many fold the administrations for the
living.

Vicarious service for the departed is peculiar to the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, and rightly so, for to this Church has
the commission for this high ministry been given. In the last chapter
of Malachi we find a vivid description of the condition of mankind in
the last days, and a prophecy of gladsome promise. On April 3, 1836,
in the first Temple erected in modern times, that at Kirtland, Ohio, a
glorious manifestation was given to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery,
in the course of which Elijah ministered in person to the two modern
prophets, saying:

"Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of
Malachi, testifying that he (Elijah) should be sent before the great
and dreadful day of the Lord come, to turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth
be smitten with a curse. Therefore the keys of this dispensation are
committed into your hands, and by this ye may know that the great and
dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors." (D&C 110:14-16.)

The requirements of the Gospel are universally applicable, to bond and
free, to living and dead. In the plenitude of Divine mercy provision
is made whereby the myriads who have died without a knowledge of the
required conditions, or without opportunity of compliance therewith,
may be ministered for by their living posterity. Thus the departed
fathers, if they be repentant in the spirit world, may be made
partakers of the blessings provided through the Atonement of Christ.
"For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead,
that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live
according to God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6.) [1]

Footnotes

1. See the author's "The House of the Lord," 333 pp., with
illustrations of modern Temples, _The Deseret News_, Salt Lake City,
Utah.



-- 86 --

THE SECOND DEATH

Spiritual Banishment Like Unto the First

IN the Revelation written by John, the second death is referred to
several times, and always as the dread fate of the ungodly or wilfully
wicked. Physical death is associated with sorrow; and the anguish of
bereavement is often so deep that only the assurances of immortality
and the certainty of a resurrection can effectively palliate or
relieve. The mere mention or thought of a second death is horrifying.
What is this frightful eventuality? And is it to be the lot of the many
or the few?

We have seen that a means of redemption is provided even for those who
are cast into hell; and that every soul shall be resurrected in due
time, whether he be righteous, or foul with sin. The second death,
therefore, whatever its nature or extent, is a feature of the final
judgment, at which each shall stand in his resurrected body of flesh
and bones to receive the sentence of honor or of shame.

We are without scriptural warrant for assuming that the second death
is another separation of body and spirit, or that the spirit shall
undergo dissolution and cease to be. The spirit of man is eternal;
and the resurrected body shall be everlasting. The soul knows not
annihilation, neither loss of personality in an impossible Nirvana.
You will be yourself and I myself throughout eternity, with quickened
senses, amplified powers of perception and vastly increased capacity
for happiness or suffering. Neither heaven nor hell can be gaged by the
yard-stick of human conception.

In what then does the second death consist? John wrote of an event
following the resurrection of the wicked and the pronouncement of
judgment: "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death." (Rev. 20:14.) The "lake of fire" as elsewhere
explained by the Revelator is the abode of Satan and those over whom he
has gained power. The second death therefore is final consignment to
the dominion of Satan, and, of necessity, banishment from the presence
of God and Christ.

The condition of death that Adam brought immediately upon himself
through disobedience was essentially a spiritual change, whereby he was
shut out from the presence of God; and this befell him in the very day
of his transgression, as he had been warned it would. Bodily death,
though an unescapable result, was nevertheless secondary, and was
deferred until Adam had reached the age of 930 years.

As eternal life consists in knowing God and His Son Jesus Christ (John
17:3; D&C 132:24), so eternal condemnation or spiritual death is
essentially banishment from the Divine presence, with corresponding
forfeiture of glory and power appertaining to exaltation. The word of
latter-day revelation, relating to Adam's spiritual death, and to the
final or as we call it, the second death, which is reserved for the
ungodly, runs as follows: "Wherefore I the Lord God caused that he
should be cast out from the Garden of Eden, from my presence, because
of his transgression, wherein he became spiritually dead, which is the
first death, even that same death, which is the last death, which is
spiritual, which shall be pronounced upon the wicked when I shall say,
Depart, ye cursed." (D&C 29:41.)

The Lamanite prophet, Samuel, had a clear understanding of the matter,
as thus expressed: "But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth
mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the
presence of the Lord. Yea, and it bringeth to pass the condition of
repentance, that whosoever repenteth, the same is not hewn and cast
into the fire; but whosoever repenteth not, is hewn down and cast into
the fire, and there cometh upon them again a spiritual death, yea, a
second death, for they are cut off again as to things pertaining to
righteousness." (Book of Mormon, Helaman 14:17-18.)

We are assured that all who win place and part in the first
resurrection--distinctively the resurrection of the just--shall
be exempt from the second death, and shall find their way open to
exaltation in the presence of God.

There is a place or condition of punishment even deeper than hell.
This is prepared for those who have sinned most grievously, who have
received the testimony of Christ and afterward wilfully and with
consciousness of what they were doing, have surrendered themselves to
the power and service of Satan. "They are they who are the sons of
perdition, of whom I say that it had been better for them never to have
been born. . . . These are they who shall go away into the lake of fire
and brimstone, with the devil and his angels, and the only ones on whom
the second death shall have any power." (D&C 76:32-37.)



-- 87 --

ANTIQUITY OF THE GOSPEL

As Old as Adam

THE old Anglo-Saxon words "god" and "spel," from which our Anglicized
term Gospel is a lineal descendant, signified in combination "the good
news of God." In a theological sense, and indeed according to common
usage, "The Gospel" is thus defined: "Good news or tidings, especially
the announcement of the salvation of men through the atoning death of
Jesus Christ." (Stand. Dict.)

It is noteworthy that the word does not occur in the Old Testament,
which is usually regarded as the record, in part, of the Semitic
peoples, and of God's dealings with them through the medium of the
Mosaic Law. The definite distinction between this Law and the Gospel of
Jesus Christ is strikingly illustrated by the segregation of the Holy
Bible into Old and New Testaments.

The teachings of Christ and later those of the Apostles emphasized
the superiority of the Gospel over the Law, which latter was likened
by Paul to a schoolmaster whose function was to discipline, train and
instruct, in preparation for the greater revelation of the Gospel. See
Gal. 3:23-29. These and other kindred facts have led to the erroneous
assumption that the Gospel was first revealed to mankind when Christ
came in the flesh.

Nevertheless, the Gospel, comprising not alone precepts but the
accompanying authority of the Holy Priesthood to administer ordinances,
was preached to men in the earliest period of human history. The
necessity of (1) faith in the then unembodied but chosen and ordained
Savior of mankind, (2) the indispensability of repentance as a means
leading to remission of sins, (3) the Divine requirement of baptism by
immersion in water, and (4) spiritual baptism through the power of the
Holy Ghost--which constitute the fundamental principles and ordinances
of the Gospel--was preached and administered to Adam, the patriarch of
the race, and by him to his posterity. Through a revelation to Moses
this is recorded of Adam, following the Fall:

"And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam
saying . . . Thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son,
and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son for
evermore. And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth
record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the
Father from the beginning, henceforth and for ever, that as thou hast
fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will."
(Pearl of Great Price, p. 20.)

As wickedness increased among men "God cursed the earth with a sore
curse and was angry with the wicked, with all the sons of men whom He
had made. For they would not hearken unto His voice, nor believe on
His Only Begotten Son, even Him whom He declared should come in the
meridian of time, who was prepared from before the foundation of the
world. And thus the Gospel began to be preached, from the beginning,
being declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and
by His own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost." (p. 26.)

The prophet Enoch testified further: "But God hath made known unto our
fathers that all men must repent. And He called upon our father Adam
by His own voice, saying: . . . If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken
unto my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and
be baptized, even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son,
who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name
which shall be given under heaven whereby salvation shall come unto the
children of men, ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (p. 33).

Enoch taught the same Gospel and administered baptism to repentant
believers, and Noah, duly ordained, labored in similar ministry: "And
it came to pass that Noah continued his preaching unto the people,
saying: Hearken, and give heed unto my words. Believe and repent of
your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
even as our fathers, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, that ye may
have all things made manifest; and if ye do not this, the floods will
come in upon you; nevertheless they hearkened not." (p. 48).

So, from Adam to the Deluge, which came because of the unbelief and
apostasy of the race, the ordinances of the Gospel were known and
administered. Reverting to Biblical Scripture we read that the Gospel
was preached unto Abraham, with the assurance that all who would abide
therein should be accounted as Abraham's children. See Gal. 3:6-18.
Through the prophet Joseph Smith a fuller account of Jehovah's promise
to Abraham is given us, the Lord saying: "I will bless them through
thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy
name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless
thee, as their father"; and the particularity of the blessing wherein
all families of the earth might share through the lineage of Abraham
was to be "the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of
salvation, even of life eternal." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 58).

As Abraham's posterity became sinful, the lesser law, which when
codified came to be known as the Law of Moses, was prescribed instead
of the Gospel, which had been preached aforetime and which was later
taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. Following the apostolic administration
apostasy again darkened the world; and now, in the current or last
dispensation, the Gospel has been restored anew with all its ancient
authority, power, and blessings. The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints proclaims these glad tidings to the world. This
Gospel is new only in the fact of its restoration to earth according
to prophecy. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was preached to
and by Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and a host of other men of God who
ministered anciently; it is the Gospel that was taught by the Savior
Himself and by His Apostles; it is the Eternal Gospel brought again to
earth in preparation for the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.



-- 88 --

THE ORIGIN OF SACRIFICE

Coeval with the Race

THAT the offering of material things as sacrifices to Deity dates from
Adamic days is attested in Genesis 4:3-5, wherein we read that both
Cain and Abel made offerings unto the Lord. The Biblical record shows
that the practise continued to and beyond the Deluge, and throughout
the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations among the Semitic peoples, who
were distinguished as Jehovah worshipers. Non-scriptural history is no
less definite in making the sacrifice of animals an essential feature
of pagan ceremonial, even in the earliest times of which we have
account. That Noah, Abraham, Jacob and other patriarchs and prophets
builded altars and sacrificed thereon is admitted by all to whom the
Holy Bible is authentic; and the Mosaic code regulated the ordinance of
sacrifice while silent as to its origin or even its establishment in
Israel.

That pagan sacrifices were originally in imitation of the Semitic
practise is highly probable, though both may have been derived from
a common and, as generally regarded, a prehistoric pattern. This
conception is no whit weakened by the corruptions and abominations
incident to heathen idolatry, which reached the extreme of atrocity
in the immolation of human victims on the altars of defilement and
sacrilege; for, without the directing and restraining power of
Divine revelation, unauthorized innovations and unholy extremes were
inevitable.

Israelitish sacrifices may be conveniently classified as bloody and
bloodless, the former comprising all offerings involving the ceremonial
slaughter of animals, and the latter consisting in the offering of
vegetables or their manufactured products. The bloody sacrifices were
early associated with the idea of expiation, or propitiation for
sin, the offerer, whether an individual or the community as a whole,
acknowledging guilt and craving propitiation through the death of the
animal made to serve as proxy for the human offender.

The animal victim intended for sacrificial death had to be chosen in
accordance with specific requirements. Thus, it was to be of the class
designated as clean, and within this class only domestic cattle and
sheep and certain birds--pigeons and turtle-doves--were acceptable.
Furthermore, it was essential that the selected animal be without
physical defect or blemish; and thus all that were deformed, maimed
or diseased were absolutely excluded. Physical defects were held as
typical of spiritual blemish, or sin; and "God cannot look upon sin
with the least degree of allowance."

These requirements of relative perfection on the part of the victim
were in accord with the fact that the slaughter of animals as a
priestly rite by Divine direction was in pre-figurement of the then
future sacrifice of the Christ Himself, whose atoning death would mark
the consummation of His ministry in mortality. While the animal victims
slain on Israel's altars figuratively bore the sins of the people, who
by their observance of the sacrificial rite sought propitiation for
their offenses, or reconciliation with God, from whom they had become
estranged through transgression, Jesus Christ actually bore the burden
of sin and provided a way for a literal reconciliation of sinful man to
God. The principal sacrifice in the Mosaic dispensation was that of the
Passover; and the superseding of the type by the actual is forcefully
expressed by Paul: "For even Christ our pass-over is sacrificed for
us." (1 Cor. 5:7.)

Theologians, Bible scholars generally, and ethnologists as well,
admit the absence of all record both in the Bible and in profane
history concerning the origin of sacrifice. The writer of the article
"Sacrifice" in one of our Bible Dictionaries (Cassell's), which article
is in line with other learned commentaries, says, following an array of
facts: "On these and other accounts it has been judiciously inferred
that sacrifice formed an element in the primeval worship of man; and
that its universality is not merely an indirect argument for the
unity of the human race, but an illustration and confirmation of the
first inspired pages of the world's history. The notion of sacrifice
can hardly be viewed as a product of unassisted human nature, and
must therefore be traced to a higher source and viewed as a Divine
revelation to primitive man."

That "Divine revelation to primitive man" is now before the world;
and the much-talked-of historical difficulty as to the origin of
sacrificial rites is definitely solved by revelation from God to man in
the current age, whereby parts of the ancient Scriptures not contained
in the Bible have been restored to human knowledge. As the natural and
inevitable consequence of his transgression, Adam forfeited the high
privilege of holding direct and personal association with God. In his
fallen state the man was commanded by the voice of the Lord to offer in
sacrifice the firstlings of his flocks.

"And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying:
Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I
know not, save the Lord commanded me. And then the angel spake, saying:
This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of
the Father, which is full of grace and truth. Wherefore, thou shalt do
all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and
call upon God in the name of the Son for evermore." (Pearl of Great
Price, p.20.)

This, then, was the origin of the sacrificial ordinance on earth. Its
purport as the prototype of the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be effected approximately four millenniums later, was revealed to
Adam, who, through obedience, attained salvation. With the Savior's
sacrificial death the significance of animal sacrifices was superseded
as part of the Israelitish ritual. The law of sacrifice is still
operative however; and the acceptable offering is thus specified in the
present age: "Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in
righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit." (D&C
59:8.)



-- 89 --

SIMPLICITY OF THE GOSPEL

None Need Err Therein

SALVATION of the soul consists essentially in the attainment of a state
of blessedness beyond the grave, and therefore comprises immunity from
the penalties incident to condemnation. Both salvation and condemnation
involve graded conditions, or degrees, every soul receiving according
to his just deserts, based on his works done in the flesh, be they good
or evil.

Our individual status in the hereafter, both during the period of
disembodiment and in the resurrection from bodily death, will be
determined by the record of our earthly life, which will be fully
declared by what we actually are. In the judgment of souls conflict of
testimony or evidence will be impossible. Every fact bearing upon our
condition of worthiness or guilt, of cleanliness through righteousness
or defilement through sin, will be known.

To each of these asseverations the Holy Scriptures of both former and
current time bear abundant and unequivocal testimony. The same high and
unimpeachable authority, embodying the very words of Divine decree,
declares that only by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ is salvation in the Kingdom of God possible unto
man.

Consider the fundamental rite, which is baptism. The words of the
Christ to the timid but truth-seeking rabbi of Jerusalem are as free
from ambiguity as language makes possible: "Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5.)

This solemn affirmation was made to Nicodemus at the time of great
excitement and controversy in Judea and neighboring provinces over the
activities of John the Baptist, who was boldly preaching the necessity
of baptism at his own hands as of one having particular authority, and
who was administering baptism by immersion to all repentant applicants.
John further declared that the watery baptism in which he officiated
would be followed by a higher endowment to be administered by a
Mightier One than himself, and this he designated the baptism of fire
and the Holy Ghost. Our Lord's declaration to the uninformed "master of
Israel" set the seal of an authority higher than John's on the absolute
necessity of baptism as conditioning man's attainment of salvation.

The crucified and resurrected Christ left this parting command and
commission with the Apostles: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19); and further declared: "He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."
(Mark 16:16.)

To the Nephite branch of the Israelitish stock on the American
continent the Lord taught the same doctrine in language and style as
simple as before: "And again I say unto you, Ye must repent, and be
baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in no wise
inherit the kingdom of God." (Book of Mormon,3 Nephi 11:38.) In full
harmony with these ancient injunctions, the Lord has said to the Church
in the present dispensation: "Go ye into all the world, preach the
gospel to every creature, acting in the authority which I have given
you, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost. And he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and
he that believeth not shall be damned." (D&C 68:8, 9.)

Could Scripture be simpler or plainer? Without baptism administered by
the requisite authority, salvation in the kingdom of God is impossible,
else the Word of God is void. But baptism to be effective must be
preceded by repentance of sin. When unrepentant sinners came to John
the zealous Baptist denounced them in stinging epithet as a "generation
of vipers" and laid upon them the condition to make themselves
acceptable by bringing forth fruits meet for repentance.

But to repent of sin in humility and contrition, with the earnest
purpose and soulful desire of making amends for offenses done and
thereby to become reconciled with and acceptable to God, one must
have unqualified trust and faith in Him. The basal principles and
fundamental ordinances of the Gospel, through which alone the saving
efficacy of the Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ is made certain in
assuring individual salvation, are ranged in the following order, as
the Scriptures prove: (1) Faith in God the Eternal Father, and in His
Son Jesus Christ as the Redeemer and Savior of humankind, and in the
Holy Ghost; (2) repentance in full purpose of heart--active, vital
repentance that shall lead and impel to good works and renunciation
of sin; (3) baptism by immersion in water; and (4) bestowal of the
Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands--both ordinances being
administered by men duly authorized to officiate by ordination to the
Holy Priesthood.

The man of thoughtful mind and contrite heart cannot fail to find
inexpressible comfort and profound cause for devout thanksgiving and
praise through contemplating God's infinite mercy in having made
so simple and easy these indispensable conditions of salvation.
Had the terms been such as only vast wealth could meet, or the
requirements so intricate or strenuous that great physical strength
or high intellectual ability were necessary to accomplish the feat of
compliance, then indeed the mortal or fallen state of the race would be
deplorable beyond conception; and, withal, justice would be eliminated
from the category of Deity's attributes. But lo! The Gospel plan is so
simple that the child may comprehend, and he that runs may read.



-- 90 --

THE WILL OF GOD

Though Opposed, Yet Eventually Supreme

DO you believe that "whatever is is right"? I do not; I cannot believe
it. If right means accordance with the will of God surely there is much
wrong in the world.

But, it is argued, God is omnipotent, and therefore has power to direct
all things as He wills. Granted. Nevertheless both scriptural and
secular history, as also the turbulent course of current events combine
to show that transgression of Divine law is as old as the race, and as
persistent.

God has given to man agency and liberty of action. It is the will of
God that this birthright of human freedom shall be inviolate; but it
is contrary to the Divine intent that man shall abuse his agency, and
misconstrue his liberty as license for wrong-doing. And as with the
individual, so with communities and nations.

In the course of Israel's troubled journey from Egypt, where they had
dwelt as in a "hours of bondage," to Canaan the land of their promised
inheritance, the Lord gave them many laws and established ordinances,
with promise of blessing for compliance, and warning of calamity if
they proved disobedient. As the sacred record progresses, the fact is
made plain that Israel had chosen the evil alternative, forfeiting the
blessings and reaping the curses.

In the days of Samuel the Israelites clamored for a king. They were
tired of the theo-democracy under which they had prospered, and wanted
to be "like all nations," a monarchy, with a king wearing a crown,
swaying a scepter, and sitting enthroned in state. Read 1 Samuel,
chapter 8. This condition had been foreseen and foretold: nevertheless
the people erred in their demand, and the Lord yielded under protest.
There is real pathos in His words to the prophet: "They have not
rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over
them." They had their king, and a long succession of monarchs, some of
whom proved to be veritable tyrants, and the people groaned under the
oppression against which they had been forewarned.

Was it the will of God, think you, that Israel should sin? Can it be
the Divine will that any man or nation shall come under the thrall
of iniquity? Is it the will of God that man shall make of himself a
drunken sot, with reason dethroned, and naught but his brutish passions
alert? Or that man shall oppress his fellows by unrighteous dominion,
robbing them of the rights upon which God Himself refuses to infringe
even though those rights be grossly misused? Is it the will of God that
woman's virtue shall be bartered for gold, and that vice shall stalk
unchallenged through the world?

To hold that these abominations accord with the Divine will is to make
God responsible for them, and therefore the author of sin. The very
thought is blasphemous.

God's omnipotence is manifest in the over-ruling by which eventual good
results from immediate evil. The crime of the ages, consummated on
the slopes of Calvary, has proved to be the means of salvation to the
world; but the awful guilt of the betrayal, of the false testimony and
the crucifixion is no whit diminished by the glorious outcome.

Through the successive captivities and the general dispersion of
Israel, which came as the consequence of infidelity to Jehovah, a
knowledge of the true and living God has been diffused among even
benighted and idolatrous peoples. And thus the nation's calamity has
been made to serve Divine purposes.

I cannot look upon the frightful carnage and inhuman atrocities of the
world war as a manifestation of the direct will of God. This dreadful
conflict was brought on through lust of power and greed of gain. It
sprang from an unholy determination to rob mankind of God-given rights,
and to subject the race to autocratic domination. It is a repetition of
the issue at stake in the primeval struggle, when Michael, the champion
of free agency, led his hosts against Lucifer's myrmidons, who sought
to rule by might. (See Rev. 12:7-9.)

In the free exercise of agency and the right of decision our nation
deliberately and solemnly entered the great conflict in the interests
of righteousness. Out of the seething carnage shall crystallize the
lustrous gems of peace and the liberties of men; and thus enriched the
world shall be the more prepared to receive the Christ, whose coming is
near, and whose dominion shall be holy, whereby the rights of all men
shall be respected and assured.

God's power and glory shall be manifest in eventual victory for the
right, and in the good that shall spring from present evil. But in
the eternal accounting, responsibility for the crime whereby war was
precipitated shall weigh upon the man, men, nation or nations who did
the devil's bidding in the attempt to enthrall mankind.

Thus the hand of God is potent in the furtherance of right; and though
His will be violated and His commandments transgressed, evil shall
be followed by good. Divine displeasure is directed against all "who
confess not His hand in all things, and obey not His commandments."
(D&C 59:21.)



-- 91 --

GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE

Not a Determining Cause

PROPHECY is one of the specified gifts of the Spirit, and one of the
distinguishing graces of the Church of Christ. If there be prophecy
there must be prophets, men through whom the purposes of God are
made known to the people at large. Prediction of events more or less
remotely future is a prophetic function, though constituting but part
of the gift of prophecy.

Divine revelation of what is to come is proof of foreknowledge. God,
therefore, knows, and has known from the beginning, what shall be,
even to the end of the world. The transgression of Adam was foreknown,
even before the man was embodied in flesh; and because of the results
entailed upon humankind a Redeemer was chosen, even "the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world." The earthly life, ministry, and
sacrificial death of the Savior were all foreseen, and their certainty
was declared by the mouths of holy prophets.

The apostasy of the Primitive Church, the long centuries of spiritual
darkness, the restoration of the Gospel in these latter days in a land
specifically prepared as the abode of a liberty-loving nation--each of
these epoch-marking events was known to God, and by Him was revealed
through prophets empowered to speak in His name.

But who will venture to affirm that foreknowledge is a determining
cause? God's omniscience concerning Adam cannot reasonably be
considered the cause of the Fall. Adam was free to do as he chose
to do. God did not force him to disobey the Divine command. Neither
did God's knowledge compel false Judas to betray the Christ, nor the
recreant Jews to crucify their Lord.

Surely the omniscience of God does not operate to make of men
automations; nor does it warrant the superstition of fatalism. The
chief purpose of earth life, as a stage in the course of the soul's
progression, would be nullified if man's agency was after all but a
pretense, and he a creature of circumstance compelled to do as he does.

A mortal father who knows the weaknesses and frailties of his son
may by reason of that knowledge sorrowfully predict the calamities
and suffering awaiting his wayward boy. He may foresee in that son's
future a forfeiture of blessings that could be won, loss of position,
self-respect, reputation, character, and honor. Even the dark shadows
of a felon's cell and the night of a drunkard's grave may loom in the
visions of that fond father's soul. Yet, convinced by experience of
the son's determination to follow the path of sin, he foresees the
dread developments to the future, and writhes in anguish because of his
knowledge.

Can it be truthfully said that the father's foreknowledge is even a
contributory cause of the evil life of his boy? To so hold is to say
that a neglectful parent, who will not trouble himself to study the
character of his son, who shuts his eyes to sinful ways, and rests
in careless indifference as to the probable future, will by his very
heartlessness benefit the boy, because the father's lack of forethought
diminishes the son's tendency toward dereliction.

By way of further illustration, consider the man versed in meteorology,
who by due consideration of temperature, air-pressure, humidity, and
other essential data, is able to forecast weather conditions. He speaks
with the assurance of long experience in foretelling a storm. The
storm comes, bringing benefit or injury, contributing to the harvest
perhaps or destroying the ripening grain; but, whether it be of good
or ill effect, can he who prophesied of the approaching storm be held
accountable for its coming?

It may be argued, however, that in these illustrative instances neither
the mortal parent nor the human forecaster had power to alter the
respective course of events, while God can direct and over-rule as
He wills. But, be it remembered that God has granted agency unto His
children, and does not control them in its exercise by arbitrary force.
He impels no man toward sin; He compels none to righteousness.

The Father of our spirits has a full knowledge of the nature and
disposition of each of His children, a knowledge gained by observation
and experience in the long ages of our primeval childhood, when we
existed as unembodied spirits, endowed with individuality and agency--a
knowledge compared with which that gained by earthly parents through
experience with their children in the flesh is infinitesimally
small. In that surpassing knowledge God reads the future of child
and children, of men individually and of men collectively. He knows
what each will do under given conditions, and sees the end from the
beginning. His foreknowledge is based on intelligence and reason. He
foresees the future of men and nations as a state that naturally and
surely will be; not as a state of things that must be because He has
arbitrarily willed that it shall be.

"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world."
(Acts 15:18.)

He willed and decreed the mortal state for His spirit offspring, and
prepared the earth for their schooling. He provided all the facilities
necessary to their training, and thus proclaimed His purpose:

"For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the
immortality and eternal life of man." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 7.)



-- 92 --

ARE MEN CREATED EQUAL?

Individualism is Eternal

DEMOCRACY holds as a distinguishing and fundamental principle the
recognition of individual rights and privileges. The living units of a
democratic system are citizens, not subjects. Before the law, so far as
it be administered in justice, all citizens are on a plane of equality.
In the exercise of the elective franchise, for example, the ballot of
the poor man, the unscholarly, the weak, sick or maimed, counts just
as much as that of the millionaire, the university graduate, or the
athlete. All this is inherent in democracy as a political system. If
through corrupt administration a citizen suffers deprivation of his
rights, the fault, grievous though ti be, is not chargeable to the
system but to the officials who have misused the authority delegated to
them.

In this sense it is affirmed in the Declaration of Independence, as the
first of the truths therein set forth as self-evident, and as assuring
to all their inalienable rights "that all men are created equal;" and
in this sense the affirmation is irrefutable. No other foundation could
support a stable structure of government by the people.

But it is manifest folly to carry this conception of the legal equality
of citizenship to the extreme of assuming that all men are alike in
capacity, ability, or power. As long as mankind live in communities
there will be leaders and followers, men of prominence, and of
necessity others who are relatively obscure, men of energy and idlers,
and consequently masters and servants.

Doubtless much of the existing disparity among men, such as the
inequitable distribution of wealth, the unrighteous acquisition of
power and its iniquitous exercise, is pernicious--evil in the sight of
God and ominously wrong under the laws of man. Nevertheless, attempts
to right such wrongs by illegal force, and to establish a false
equality by promiscuously taking from one to give to another, tend
toward disruption and anarchy.

We are confronted by this profound fact: Individualism is an attribute
of the soul, and as truly eternal as the soul itself.

(1) In the unembodied, preexistent or antemortal state, we were
decidedly unequal in capacity and power.

(2) We know we are not equal here in the world of mortals.

(3) Assuredly we shall not be equal after death, either in the
intermediate state of disembodiment or beyond the resurrection.

We read that Jeremiah was chosen from among his fellows and ordained
before he was born to be a prophet unto the nations (Jer. 1:5) ;
and a similar fore-ordination is indicated by Isaiah (49:1, 5.)
Abraham definitely avers that among the unembodied spirits there were
differences, some were noble and great and others less adapted to the
duties of rulership: "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the
intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all
these there were many of the noble and great ones. And God saw these
souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he
said: These I will make my rulers." (Pearl of Great Price p. 65-66.)

The God of spirits recognized particular qualifications in some, and
selected them to be leaders among men. Let us not assume that the
"rulers" thus divinely chosen are necessarily those whom men would
later elect to be their leaders. Many of God's great ones have been
and are counted among the despised of earth. So it was with the Christ
Himself, and so with many of His prophets, apostles and revelators unto
mankind.

Born into the flesh with diverse capacities, subjected here to varied
environment, which may be favorable or opposed to the development
of inherent tendencies toward either good or evil, we as a race are
creatures of disparity, inequality, and heterogeneous circumstance. But
all color of injustice disappears in the light of assurance that, in
the judgment of souls, every condition shall be weighed in the accurate
balances of Justice and Mercy.

But what of the hereafter--shall we not be made equal there? Not in the
sense that our individuality shall be subverted or radically changed.
We shall find beyond more gradations in society than we have ever
known on earth. But the basis of classification will be essentially
different. Here we are rated according to what we have--of wealth,
learning, political or other influence due to circumstance; there we
shall find our place according to what we really are.

Ponder the significance of our Lord's assurance of the "many mansions"
in the Father's kingdom (John 14:1-3) and consider Paul's summary of
varied glories. (1 Cor. 15:40-41.)

Through later Scripture we are told of distinct kingdoms or worlds of
graded order, comparable to the sun, moon, and stars respectively.
There are the Celestial, the Terrestrial, and the Telestial kingdoms,
in which the souls of men shall abide and serve as their attainments in
righteousness or their disqualification through sin shall determine.
Concerning the inhabitants of the Telestial world, the lowest of
the specified kingdoms of glory, we read: "For they shall be judged
according to their works, and every man shall receive according to his
own works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, his
own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared." (D&C 76:111.)



-- 93 --

ETHICS AND RELIGION

A Distinction With a Difference

UNDOUBTEDLY there are many people who, while of earnest intent and
practise, of worthy, honorable, and moral life, neither profess
religion nor confess belief in it. At least, so they would say if
questioned. Closer analysis would probably show that by religion these
good people had understood Church membership or actual affiliation with
some religious organization. And their conception is not irrational
nor fundamentally wrong; though such membership or affiliation is no
assurance of personal religion.

The foundation of all religion is a real belief, or, more accurately,
faith, in the existence of a Supreme Being upon whose beneficence man
is dependent and to whom he is accountable for his conduct. With this
belief, man cannot fail to recognize the superlative duty of learning
God's will and of living according to His revealed word and law.

Mankind being by nature gregarious, and indeed unsuited to solitary
existence, will congregate according to community interests, beliefs
and aspirations. In the tribal organizations of peoples whom we
call semi-civilized, there is generally a distinctive religion for
each tribe; even though it be but a phase of paganism; and their
unenlightened souls are held together by their generic conception
of worship. Among larger and more advanced nations differences in
religious conceptions are manifest, and people associate in rival sects
and churches. Voluntary membership in any such body is at least a
profession of belief in its distinguishing tenets.

But beside these there are many who aver that ethics is sufficient,
and that a moral life will insure salvation in the world to come.
Granted that religious profession without morality is but mockery and
hypocrisy. Nevertheless, between the merely ethical and the really
religious life, there is vital distinction.

To assume that an ethical or even a strictly moral course of conduct
is all-sufficient for the soul's salvation would be to repudiate
Scripture, deny the essential efficacy of the Atonement, dethrone the
Christ, and eliminate God from earthly affairs. Such an assumption
proclaims the stupendous error that mortal man is competent to save
himself--on his terms, and according to a standard established by human
agency.

Religion is more than a code of morals. Man can no more be saved by
ethics than can he live by bread alone. The spiritual nutriment,
without which no soul can develop to the exalted status of eternal
life, consists of "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

The very purpose for which this earth was created as an abiding place
for the spirit-children of God during their brief period of embodiment
in flesh was to test and "prove them herewith to see if they will do
all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them." (Pearl of
Great Price p. 66.)

It is conceivable that ethics may measurably satisfy the conscience of
one who really believes that mortal life is the sum total of existence;
though I seriously doubt that such a being exists. If he lives, he
is dangerously liable to stifle conscience, and to follow the easier
though pernicious prompting to eat, drink and be merry whilst he may,
taking no thought for the morrow of eternity.

But, it is fair to ask, shall not morality count in the judgment to
come? Beyond question, Yes. God's word so declares. The clean minded
who, however, fail to comply with the specified laws and ordinances
of the Gospel of Christ, are not to be cast into the society of the
spiritually filthy; neither are they to be exalted with the valiant who
have righteously obeyed the requirements of the Gospel.

There is a hell to which shall go the "liars, and sorcerers, and
adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie."
Furthermore, there is a kingdom prepared to receive the "honorable
men of the earth who were blinded by the craftiness of men"--the
unfortunate and deluded who have followed after human theories and
precepts to the ignoring of God and His word, the misled devotees of
"science falsely so called."

And above all else is the state of eternal life and exaltation provided
for those who, while in the flesh, lived the religion of Christ, "who
received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were
baptized after the manner of his burial"; for "these are they who are
just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant,
who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own
blood." (D&C 76.)

The Lord's affirmation is definite: "He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved"; for if his belief be vital he will make the morality
that Christ taught the foundation of his religion. "But he that
believeth not shall be damned," whatever his standard of ethics may be.
(See Mark 16:16.)



-- 94 --

RELIGION ACTIVE AND PASSIVE

Effort Essential to Salvation

RELIGION to be worth while must be a vital element of life and work.
It is of both temporal and spiritual significance, value and effect.
It has to do with individual morality, with mutual dealings and
associations of men even in ordinary, every-day affairs, with the great
problems involved in family unity and efficiency and with the little
things that make or mar the home, with work and play, with the duties
of citizenship, statesmanship and public service generally.

All these relationships are human and earthly, and the honorable
discharge of duties arising therefrom approaches ethical perfection.
But man's standard of ethics is of necessity unstable, variable
and, withal, unsatisfying to the soul having a healthful hunger for
spiritual nourishment.

Who of us has not felt at times the spontaneous yearning and
aspirations incident to our deep inborn conviction of life beyond
death? We may weaken these emotions by persistently ignoring them; we
may effectively stifle them by rude force; we may render them dormant
by the poisonous anodyne of false philosophy and the boastful pride
of man's mis-called wisdom; but kill them we can not, for they were
divinely implanted and are deathless.

And as there is a hereafter, in which every soul of us shall live in
continuation of the eternal existence of which earthlife is but a span,
so surely shall our status there be determined by the deeds done in the
body, whether they be good or evil.

Religion, then, has to do not only with this life but with that to
come. We are but sojourners on earth; and, profoundly important as
is this mortal experience, it is, after all, mainly a probation, and
essentially a preparation for eternity.

It is temporarily easier to be passive than aggressive, whether we
claim for our guiding code man's rules of ethics or the clear-cut
requirements of the Gospel of Christ. There are more good men on earth
than men who are good for much.

The Gospel demands something greater than avoidance of actual sins of
commission. The culpability of neglect and omission may justly condemn
the soul. Wilful spurning of Divine opportunity may work eternal loss.
Though the Scriptures affirm the possibility of progression after
death, nowhere do we find ground for assuming that failure to obey the
Gospel on earth will be nullified by immediate remission beyond. We
have no basis for computing the ages that shall be requisite to make
amends there for wanton failure here.

There is a time in the eternal existence of souls which has been
specifically made the time of repentance and test; and that is the
period of mortality. Paul's forceful admonition is of universal
application: "Lay hold on eternal life" while opportunity is found
(1 Tim. 6:12, 19). For, be it remembered that the Lord has spoken
concerning the wilfully unrepentant: "From him shall be taken even the
light which he has received, for my Spirit shall not always strive with
man, saith the Lord of Hosts." (D&C 1:33.)

Sin is conducive to lethargy in things spiritual; the Gospel inspires
to life and activity. Contentment with the things of this world, so
long as they go to suit us, with no thought of what shall follow, is
the devil's lullaby. In the moment of supreme complacency when we
are expressing by word, act, thought, or through sheer inaction, the
stultifying soliloquy "Soul, take thine ease," may come the summoning
decree: "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee."
Read Luke 12:16-21.

When will men awaken to the imperative yet persuasive summons to
repentance? Are not the awful vicissitudes of the days of war and death
sufficient to arouse us to some realization of the solemnities of
eternity? As a nation we have valiantly waged war for the vindication
of the rights, privileges, and liberties of men. As individuals we are
summoned by the call of God to resist iniquity, and to make peace and
reconciliation with Him through obedience to the laws and ordinances of
the Gospel.

Only through active, vital faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, effective
repentance of wrong-doing, baptism by immersion for the remission of
sins, and the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost or the higher
baptism of the Spirit, can salvation be attained in the Kingdom of God,
for so the Holy Scriptures aver.

The pleading call of the ancient prophet is yet in force. Hear ye, and
heed: "Now I say unto you, that ye must repent, and be born again:
for the Spirit saith, If ye are not born again, ye cannot inherit the
kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that
ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of
God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and
to cleanse from all unrighteousness." (Book of Mormon, Alma 7:14.)



-- 95 --

REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY

A Law unto Man from the Beginning

THE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts Sunday as the
Christian Sabbath and proclaims the sanctity of the day. We admit
without argument that under the Mosaic Law the seventh day of the
week, Saturday, was designated and observed as the Holy Day, and that
the change from Saturday to Sunday was a feature of the apostolic
administration following the personal ministry of Jesus Christ. Greater
to us than the question of this day or that in the week, is the
actuality of the weekly Sabbath, to be observed as a day of special and
particular devotion to the service of the Lord.

The Sabbath was prefigured if not definitely specified in the record of
the creation, wherein we read, following the account of the six days
or periods of creative effort: "And God blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which
God created and made." (Gen. 2:3.)

In the early stages of the Exodus the Israelites were commanded to
lay in a double portion of manna on the sixth day, for the seventh
was consecrated as a day of holy rest; and this was signalized by the
Lord's withholding manna on the Sabbath day. See Exo. 16:23-30. There
is no proof that Sabbath observance by Israel at this early date was
an innovation; and it may be reasonably regarded as a recognition of
an established order by reenactment in the new dispensation. Later,
when the decalog was codified and promulgated on Sinai, the Sabbath law
was made particularly explicit, and the Lord's rest was cited as its
foundation:

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour,
and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord
thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy
stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh
day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."
(Exo. 20:8-11.)

The keeping of the Sabbath as a day of surcease from toil and of
particular devotion came to be a national characteristic of the
Israelites, whereby they were distinguished from pagan nations; and
rightly so, for the observance of the Holy Day was specified as a
distinctive sign of the covenant between Jehovah and His people. See
Exo. 31:13.

In the course of Israelitish history successive prophets admonished
and rebuked the people for neglect or profanation of the Sabbath.
Nehemiah ascribed the affliction of the nation to the forfeiture of
Divine protection through Sabbath violation (see Neh. 13:15-22); and
by the mouth of Ezekiel the Lord reaffirmed the significance of the
Sabbath as a mark of His covenant with Israel, and sternly upbraided
those who observed not the day. (See Ezek. 20:12-24.) To the detached
branch of Israel, which, as the Book of Mormon avers, was transplanted
to American soil, Sabbath observance was no less an imperative
requirement. See Jarom 1:5; Mosiah 13:16-19; 18:23.

Long before the birth of Christ the original purpose of the Sabbath and
the spirit of its service had come to be largely lost sight of among
the Jews; and rabbinical rules had introduced numerous technicalities,
which made of the day one of discomfort and severity. This condition
was strongly denounced by our Lord in reply to the many criticisms
heaped upon Him because of the healings and other good works wrought by
Him on the Sabbath. "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
sabbath," said He, and then continued with the profound affirmation:
"The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath." (Mark 2:27, 28.)

Christ came not to destroy the Law of Moses but to fulfil it; and
through Him the law was superseded by the Gospel. The Savior rose from
the tomb on the first day of the week; and that particular Sunday, as
also the next, was rendered forever memorable by the bodily visitation
of the resurrected Lord to the assembled Apostles and others. To the
believers in the crucified and risen Savior Sunday became the Lord's
Day (Rev. 1:10), and in time took the place of Saturday as the weekly
Sabbath in the Christian churches.

The Church of Jesus Christ teaches that Sunday is the acceptable
day for Sabbath observance, on the authority of direct revelation
specifying the Lord's Day as such. In this, a new dispensation, and
verily the last--the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times--the law of
the Sabbath has been reaffirmed unto the Church. It is to be noted that
the revelation, part of which follows, was given to the Church on a
Sunday (August 7th, 1831.)

"And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world,
thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon
my holy day. For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from
your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High. Nevertheless
thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all
times. But remember that on this the Lord's day, thou shalt offer thine
oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins
unto thy brethren, and before the Lord. And on this day thou shalt do
none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of
heart that thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy
may be full." (D&C 59:9-13.)

We believe that a weekly day of rest is no less truly a necessity
for the physical well-being of man than for his spiritual growth;
but, primarily and essentially, we regard the Sabbath as divinely
established, and its observance a commandment of Him who was and is and
ever shall be, Lord of the Sabbath.



-- 96 --

THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD

And the Wisdom of Men

"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. . . . Because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is
stronger than men." (Cor. 1:18, 25.)

So spake Paul in olden days, and he knew whereof he spake. Rich in the
learning of Jews and Greeks, ripe in scholarship and experience, he
possessed breadth of foresight and depth of insight far exceeding the
average capacity of men; and to these superior qualifications of mind
must be added the transcendent spiritual endowments of the apostle, the
prophet, the seer, the revelator.

His abnegation and humility are no less striking than the incontestable
sincerity and genuineness of his avowals. Inspired philosopher as he
was, he discriminated with keen perception and clear vision between
knowledge and wisdom, and with masterly skill contrasted the fallible
teachings of men with the unshakable averments of prophecy.

The Greeks of Paul's time prided themselves on their learning,
philosophy, and science, much of which last was "falsely so called."
By such the preaching of the cross, the teachings of the Gospel, the
precepts of eternal life were accounted but vain babblings. Those pagan
Greeks were mindtrained but spirit-dwarfed. And that type of misshapen
monstrosity is not yet extinct.

The brutal protagonists of autocratic tyranny, whose barbarous kultur
impels to crimes innumerable and atrocities indescribable, profess to
regard the might of righteousness as but maudlin sentiment and puerile
weakness. Boastful of material achievements and the temporary success
of their diabolical system of selfishness and arrogance, they blaspheme
the name and power of the living God, whose will it is that every soul
be free.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the Divine will
and purpose. That Gospel enjoins obedience to righteous law as the
guaranty of individual liberty. It endures as the unchanging expression
of eternal wisdom, though by carnally-minded sinners ridiculed as
foolishness.

As early as 1833, in a revelation through the prophet Joseph Smith, the
Lord declared that both strong drinks and hot drinks were injurious to
the body. In that period the use of alcoholic beverages was common,
and the consumption of hot drinks, particularly as tea and coffee, was
well nigh universal. Promulgation of the Divine warning against these
harmful customs was treated as a fad born of fanaticism. Inexorable
fact has compelled acknowledgment of the Word of Wisdom (see D&C, Sec.
89) as the pronouncement of Nature's God. Prohibition of the use of
intoxicants has become a question of supreme international importance.
The efficiency of armies and navies is seen to be gravely conditioned
thereby. Some of the world's most eminent surgeons aver that the
habitual use of hot drinks is one of the most effective causes of
gastric ulcer and cancer, which are classed among the deadliest of
maladies.

The same revelation voices a direct inhibition against the use of
tobacco by man, and this avowal, now branded as extreme and uncalled
for, is destined yet to become the basis of secular enactment.

The immoderate use of flesh foods was specified by Divine utterance as
harmful. The exigencies of war enforced restriction of meat eating, and
the nation was bettered thereby.

Unchastity, the dominant vice of the ages, has been tolerated as an
irrepressible feature of the social system, and this notwithstanding
the warning fiat of Jehovah against marital infidelity and sexual sin
in all its hideous phases. The imperative demand for efficiency in this
crucial age of stress and struggle has literally forced a measured
though lamentably inadequate acceptance of the Divine requirement, for
the statistical data of incapacity due to so-called social diseases are
so astounding and show a condition so frightful as to make plain that
the very foundations of civilization are jeopardized.

Men have been prone to turn deaf ears to the voice of God, delivered
through the prophets always in season to avert threatening calamities;
and have rested in the lethal contentment of self-confident ability to
deal in their own way with the problems of life. How surpassingly wiser
would it be, as shown in the light of our dearly-bought experience,
to acknowledge the wisdom of God's beneficence, and profit thereby.
Prophecy is direct and sure, science laggard and tentative. One is
the advance message from God, the other man's belated and ofttimes
distorted version of the truth.

Mormonism proclaims the Gospel of Christ as the panacea for the ills
of men and nations. Its proclamation to the world is the assurance of
peace on earth and good will among men, through obedience to the laws
and ordinances of the Gospel. The veriest moiety of the wisdom of God
transcends the accumulated knowledge of men in its entirety.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is calling aloud to
every nation, kindred, tongue and people: Have faith in God. Deal
justly with one another. Make amends for past wrongs before opportunity
is forfeited. Strive to enter in at the gate to the Kingdom of God
while yet you may, for verily the time is short, and the coming of the
Lord is near. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, by which ye shall be guided in the
paths of truth and inherit salvation at the great and terrible day of
the Lord which is nigh, even at your doors.



-- 97 --

FREEDOM THROUGH OBEDIENCE

Release from Autocracy of Sin

"COME unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light." (Matt. 11:28-30.)

A blessed invitation indeed!

Seemingly faint at heart over the unbelief of the people, our Lord had
sought strength in prayer. With the soulful eloquence characteristic of
the anguish-laden communion which at recurrent periods He had with the
Father, the Savior voiced His reverent gratitude that God had imparted
a testimony of the truth to the humble and lowly whom He likened unto
trusting babes, rather than unto men proud in their learning and
arrogant in self-assumption.

Then turning to the common people, the multitude who had just witnessed
His miracles and listened to His lofty yet simple precepts, He urged
anew their acceptance of Him and His Gospel in one of the grandest
outpourings of spiritual emotion recorded for man to read.

His summoning yet pleading call was addressed to priestridden and
Rome-governed Jews. Many of them yearned for release from thraldom, but
the national spirit had been so broken that most of them had become
inured to vassalage and tolerant of bondage.

The priestly hierarchy was boastful of its status, and strove
effectively to deceive the people into the belief that they were free
while sweating under the burdens of unrighteous exaction.

What had Christ to offer in mitigation of their grievous state?
Certainly not the emancipation for which false rabbinical precept had
led them to look--the reestablishment of the throne of David as an
earthly kingdom, destined to subjugate all other nations by force of
arms and make supreme the scepter of rehabilitated Israel.

Christ's kingdom was not, is not, nor ever shall be a merely secular or
political dominion. His throne and crown are not of earthly make.

The people of Israel had brought themselves into bondage. Their
vanished glory and fallen status had been foretold as an alternative
fate, which would fall upon them if they departed from the covenant and
proved recreant to the God of their fathers. But more burdensome than
Roman mastership was the literal serfdom of priestly misrule. Rome was
tolerant and conciliatory, while those who for the time sat in Moses'
seat gloried in the shackles they had riveted upon the people through a
blasphemous misapplication of the Law.

To the overladen and weary Jews came the offer of rest and peace.
The Lord pleadingly invited them from drudgery to pleasant service,
from the well-nigh unbearable burdens of ecclesiastical exaction and
traditional formalism to the liberty of true worship, from slavery to
freedom.

But they would not.

The Gospel He offered was and is the embodiment of liberty, untainted
by selfish license. True, it entailed obedience and submission; but
even if such could be likened unto a yoke, what was its burden in
comparison with the incubus under which they groaned?

The offer, the call, the invitation is in full force and effect today.
Transgression of the law is primarily or indirectly the cause of all
suffering. Obedience to righteous law is the price of liberty. In such
obedience lies happiness.

By a government of the people, administered in equity, every man is
under wholesome restriction in compliance with which he finds privilege
and protection.

Irresponsibility is directly opposed to enduring freedom. But what
are the restraints of democracy in contrast with enslavement under
autocratic rule? How easy the yoke, how light the burden, and how
glorious the blessings of righteous government!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the expression of the eternal truth that
shall make men free. It prescribes obedience, compliance, voluntary
submission as the conditions of enfranchisement in the kingdom of
God. In its conflict with sin the Gospel neither slays nor makes men
prisoners. Its weapons are persuasion, invitation, and awakening
summons. Its antagonists suffer self-inflicted punishment, bring upon
themselves imprisonment within the bars of lost opportunity, and
formulate their own sentence of eventual banishment as alien enemies of
the truth.

Liberty through obedience was the theme of Benjamin, the ancient
prophet and king who thus addressed his penitent people, respecting
their acknowledgment of Christ as the Author of salvation:

"And under this head, ye are made free, and there is no other head
whereby ye can be made free. There is no other name given whereby
salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you
the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with
God, that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives." (Book of
Mormon, Mosiah 5:8.)

And unto the repentant and obedient of the present day the Lord has
spoken through the prophet Joseph Smith:

"Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free; entangle not
yourselves in sin, but let your hands be clean, until the Lord come."
(D&C 88:86.)

The Lord has spoken, saying to all men and nations: Come unto me in
faith, doubting not; repent of your sins; be baptized for the remission
thereof; and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost and He shall guide you in
the truth that shall make you free.



-- 98 --

HE WENT AND WASHED

And Came Seeing

THE ninth chapter of John contains an absorbingly graphic account of
a man who had been born blind, yet who was made to see through the
ministrations of the Lord Jesus Christ. As in every other miracle
wrought by the Savior, the outward or visible procedure in this case
was strikingly simple.

Jesus anointed the sightless eyes with clay, and said unto the man:
"Go, wash in the pool of Siloam." The sequel is thus tersely recorded:
"He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing."

The man had been a mendicant, a blind beggar, and as such was
a familiar character in his neighborhood. Word of the miracle
spread and a great stir arose among both the common folk and the
learned Pharisees. The day of the healing was the Sabbath, and the
hypercritical Pharisees laid stress on this point as proof that He who
had given sight to the blind man was obviously a sinner, for He had
healed on the Holy Day, whereon all manner of work was forbidden.

With the assurance characteristic of a sincere mind that knows whereof
it speaks, and with incisive directness, the happy recipient of our
Lord's bounty replied: "Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one
thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."

Then the inquisitors questioned the man anew as to the precise means
by which his eyes had been opened; but he refused to repeat what they
had already treated with derision, and ironically inquired if they were
about to join the disciples of the Healer. This served but to increase
their anger. They boasted of being disciples of Moses, but as for
Christ, whom they referred to as "this fellow," they furiously declared
that they knew not whence He came.

They were enraged that an illiterate beggar should answer so boldly
in their scholarly presence; but the man was more than a match for
them all. His rejoinder was maddening because it flouted their vaunted
wisdom, and, withal, was unanswerable.

"Why, herein is a marvellous thing," said he, "that ye know not from
whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God
heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth
his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that
any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were
not of God, he could do nothing."

Unable to cope in argument or demonstration with the erstwhile
sightless beggar, those blinded Pharisees could at least exercise their
official authority, however unjustly, by excommunicating him from the
congregation of the synagog, and this they promptly and wickedly did.

The case in all its bearings is typical of current conditions, as
indeed it has been of men in all ages. Physical blindness is a grievous
affliction, and relief therefrom correspondingly gladsome. But it is of
the body only, and though permitted to endure till death, it shall end.

For that deeper darkness--blindness of mind and heart--the grave is no
curative. As between the sightless beggar and the sin-proud Pharisees,
the latter were by far the blinder. He reverently rejoiced in the gift
of sight, for he knew that he had been blind and that afterward he saw;
they boasted of their vision, though living in darkness, and refused
enlightement.

"Wo unto the blind that will not see; for they shall perish." (Book of
Mormon, 2 Nephi 9:32.)

The requirements of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are the same today as
in "the meridian of time" when the Master taught among men in Person.
Likewise are there now many blind eyes, some of which are opened
through the enlightenment of obedience, while others grow more and more
darkened by the spreading cataract of false teaching, skepticism, and
wilful sin.

Away with the benighting Pharisaism that sets the precepts of men above
the revealed word of God! For spiritual blindness so induced, the
Divine Healer offers sure relief. Oh, sightless man, anoint thine eyes
with the balm of compliance with the laws and ordinances of the Gospel
as enunciated by the Redeemer of men. Do but desire the light with
repentant heart and with the deep full earnestness of a living faith,
and then, in the waters of baptism be washed, and ye shall come, seeing.

Of deep import are these words of the Lord given unto an ancient Hebrew
seer:

"And the mists of darkness are the temptations of the devil, which
blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men, and
leadeth them away into broad roads, that they perish, and are lost."
(Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 12:17.)

Man is not the author of the plan of salvation; and blind indeed
are they who suppose that precepts, theories or systems originated
or contrived by man can substitute or supersede the means divinely
appointed for the redemption of mankind.

To the groping, sightless soul is offered the unction of faith and the
ability to repent; and in the Siloam of baptism shall be received the
enlightenment that guides the soul, once blind, now seeing, along the
path leading to eternal life.



-- 99 --

THE ROD OF IRON

A Dependable Support

UNTO Lehi, a prophet of Jerusalem, who by Divine command had gone with
his family from the city into the wilderness, came the word of the Lord
in vision.

The man stood by a tree, the fruit of which he found to be sweet, and
"desirable to make one happy"; for, as he ate of it his soul was filled
with peace and joy unspeakable. Near the tree, separating it from a
spacious plain wherein great concourses of people had gathered, flowed
a turbulent river of muddy, filthy water. The head of the stream was
visible in the distance, and from this to the tree, alongside the
river's treacherous bank, ran a narrow path, paralleling which was a
rod of iron, firmly secured, and so placed that one could hold to it
while treading the pathway.

Numerous people were observed moving toward the head of the stream,
striving to lay hold on the iron rod, but dense mists of darkness
arose, and enshrouded them, so that many became bewildered, and,
abandoning their purpose of reaching the tree, were lost in the murky
depths of the river. Of the more faithful and determined, he saw and
testified:

"And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they
came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did
press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of
iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the
tree." (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 8:24; read chaps. 8 and 15).

An explication of the vision was given through inspiration. The tree
shown to the prophet was the tree of life, and its fruit the salvation
of the soul. Of the rod of iron it is written: "That it was the word of
God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast
unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the
fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead
them away to destruction." (1 Nephi 15:24).

The river of foul waters typified the great gulf separating "the wicked
from the tree of life, and also from the saints of God", and the state
of loss and condemnation, which shall be the inevitable fate of the
wilfully and unregenerate wicked.

The present is an age of whirl and swirl, in which many reach out
confusedly and despairingly for support, buffeted by the waves of
theologic dogma, swept hither and thither by the creeds and precepts of
men, blown about by the winds of conflicting doctrines, bewildered by
the mists of darkness, which are "the temptations of the devil, which
blindeth the eyes and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men."
(12:17).

The rod of iron is the Word of God unto man, the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Faith in God, and in His Son Jesus Christ as the Redeemer
and Savior of men, and contrite repentance of sin mark the beginning
of the narrow path. We must hold fast to the rod, for the mists of
darkness are dense and confusing; and it is easy to let go, to slip and
slide and fall.

But with firm hand on the rod, stedfast feet on the path, we are
led into the clear and purifying waters of baptism, without whose
invigorating ablution we are unable to progress. Cleansed and
strengthened we press on, even though the mists thicken; and by the
enlightening baptism of the Spirit, which is administered by the
authorized laying on of hands, we reach the tree, entitled to live
thereafter gladdened and made strong by its sweet and nourishing bounty.

The rod of iron is still in place, fast, secure, a dependable support
for every soul who strives with full purpose of heart to reach the tree
of life. Clinging thereto we make sure progress, though the filthy
waters beat hard by the narrow path. Let go, and we slip, then slide,
and if we fail through strenuous effort and the aid of an outstretched
helping hand to regain our grasp, we are swept away, carried by the
torrent of confusion and uncertainty, perhaps into the engulfing
Charybdis of fatalism or the dread Scylla of atheistical despair.

Mark you, that rod is unbendable, unbreakable, immovable. The pathway
endures, is never in need of repairs by addition, new construction, or
reinforcement. These are no product of man's skill. It is sadly true,
however, that men have essayed to make roads, the while proclaiming
that their broad highways lead to the tree of life. But never has one
such thoroughfare been constructed to the promised destination; nor can
it be. For a time these manmade roads are alluring in their macadamized
smoothness, but they crumble and are worn into pitfalls, unsightly and
dangerous.

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is
the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matt. 7:13, 14).



-- 100 --

LIAR AND MURDERER

From the Beginning

THE Scriptures are equally definite in affirming the existence of both
individual Gods and devils.

Of the former we recognize three, the Holy Trinity, comprising God the
Eternal Father, God the Son who is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
and God the Holy Ghost, these three individual Personages constituting
the presiding council having supreme power and authority throughout the
universe, and collectively known as the Godhead.

The devils are many, and their chieftain is Satan, who though
unembodied is as truly an individual being as is any one of us. He
is the personage who in the primeval world bore the exalted title of
Lucifer, a son of the morning, and who with his rebellious horde was
cast out, prior to the peopling of the earth. (See Rev. 12:7-9; also
D&C 29:36-38, and 76:25-27; and Isa. 14:12-15).

On the best authority, that of the Lord Jesus Christ, we learn
something of the character of this fallen son of the morning, the
antagonist of righteousness, and the enemy of God and man. In
denouncing the false beliefs and evil practises of certain unregenerate
Jews, Christ spoke in these definite and forceful terms:

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell
you the truth, ye believe me not." (John 8:44-45).

A liar and a murderer from the beginning! He it was who beguiled the
mother of the race, and that by the most dangerous of all falsehoods,
the half-truth, in the use of which he is a past master.

He it was who taught the awful secret of murder to the fratricide,
Cain, baiting the hook of infamous temptation with the lie, that, by
slaying his brother, Cain would come into possession of Abel's flocks,
and have much gain beside. (See Pearl of Great Price, pp. 22 and 23).

He it was who deceived Israel, by inducing them to revolt against
the theo-democracy under which they had prospered, and to clamor for
a king. Under kingly rule the nation was brought into vassalage and
obscurity.

Primordially he and his angels were "cast out into the earth", and here
they have since been, going up and down in the world, seeking whom they
may deceive.

He is the author of sophistry and degrading skepticism, and of the
whole foul mass of the philosophy and science "falsely so called",
by which mankind are led to doubt the word of God, to becloud the
Scriptures with vain imaginings and private interpretations, and to
narcotize the mind with the poison of human invention as a substitute
for revealed truth.

He is an adept at compounding mixtures of truth and falsehood, with
just enough of the one to inspire a dangerous confidence, and of the
other a toxic portion.

Beware of his prescriptions, his tonics and medicaments. Remember that
water may be crystal clear, and yet hold in solution the deadliest of
poisons.

He it is who has deceived peoples, tribes, and races, into servile
submission to self-constituted rulers, and made of the masses slaves of
autocrats, rather than to assert and maintain their rights as free men,
whatever the effort and sacrifice be.

He it is who seeks to lead men captive at his will, to destroy
their power of agency and choice, to dupe them into bartering their
birthright of freedom for the nauseating pottage of present expediency.

He it is who has cajoled men into the unscriptural conception that
there are ways, many and variable, by which salvation is attainable,
other than the one and only way provided by the Savior of souls.

He is the arch-deceiver, the master sophist, the prime dissembler, the
prince of hypocrites.

Concerning the devil's plan of subverting the rights of man, and of
those who support it, Moroni, the last of the Nephite prophets, wrote:

"Whoso buildeth it up, seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands,
nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all
people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies;
even that same liar who beguiled our first parents; yea, even that same
liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath
hardened the hearts of men, that they have murdered the prophets, and
stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning." (Book of Mormon,
Ether 8:25).

Though great be Satan's power, deliverance therefrom is provided
through compliance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, at whose
advent, now near at hand, the promised millennium of peace shall be
inaugurated, a blessed feature of which is that the devil shall be
rendered impotent to further subjugate the souls of men, and "that he
should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be
fulfilled." (Rev. 20:3).



-- 101 --

ON THE DEVIL'S GROUND

Prisoners to Satan

IN the decisive issues of war there are victors and vanquished;
the casualties comprise killed, wounded, and prisoners. Generally,
capture by the enemy is the form of individual calamity most dreaded
by the gallant soldier who knows he is fighting for the right, and
particularly so if the foe be ruthless or treacherous.

In the battle of life as a whole, analogous conditions and categories
obtain. The slain may have fallen in honor; for the disabled there is
hope of recovery; but the fate of the captured is one of apprehension
or dread certainty, ofttimes of horror.

When one is taken prisoner as the result of venturesome curiosity,
reckless exposure, or disobedience to orders, he must bear the blame as
well as the suffering consequent on capture. Many are prisoners because
thoughtlessly, wilfully, or defiantly, they have trespassed upon the
devil's ground, without warrant of duty or justifiable excuse. The
soldier's part is to keep within the lines until ordered forward in
attack to dislodge the foe.

Hosts of capable souls have heedlessly put themselves into the enemy's
power by yielding to the treacherous invitation to fraternize with sin.
Such a one is made welcome in the camp of the foe, and, at first a
visitor, he sooner or later awakens to the fact that he is a prisoner,
and withal a deserter from the ranks of patriotism and honor.

The young man, rich in hope and promise, sets out to see the world for
himself--just to see, that's all, he says--and is overpowered in the
grog-shop trench or the wanton's den--a prisoner in the power of a
merciless and exulting foe.

Solemn as the sound of doom, piercing as the blast of angel's trump,
is the Lord's affirmation: "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of
sin." (John 8:34.)

Who can find so much as excuse to think of himself as a freeman when
he knows he is a slave--to base passion, to dishonorable desire, to
hypocrisy and crime?

The prisoner's fate is as commonly the result of negative sin--of
neglect, indolence, failure to do--as it is the consequence of
ill-directed activity and positive transgression. Refusal to comply
with the prescribed laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
is to permit or invite capture by the arch-enemy of souls.

Obedience is the test of allegiance, and he whom we obey, the leader we
elect to follow, is the master who directs our destiny, whether in the
liberty of righteousness or the serfdom of sin.

"Know ye not," wrote Paul of old to the proud Romans, "that to whom ye
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey;
whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Rom
6:16.)

The certainty of capture by the enemy through passive irresolution or
aggressive violation of Divine law, together with the actuality of
the captive state was set forth by a Hebrew prophet on the Western
Hemisphere centuries before the birth of Christ, as follows:

"For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it
must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them
with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger and perish.

"For behold, at that day [this latter, modern, present day] shall he
rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger
against that which is good.

"And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security,
that they will say, All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is
well; and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away
carefully down to hell.

"And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no
hell; and he saith unto them, I am no devil, for there is none; and
thus he whispereth in their ears until he grasps them with his awful
chains, from whence there is no deliverance.

"Yea, they are grasped with death, and hell; and death, and hell, and
the devil, and all that have been seized therewith, must stand before
the throne of God, and be judged according to their works, from whence
they must go into the place prepared for them, even a lake of fire
and brimstone, which is endless torment." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi
28:19-23.)

It is evident from the foregoing and from the following, that captivity
to the devil shall extend into the eternities as the state of those who
have failed to establish their status as citizens in the Kingdom of
freedom:

"For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance,
even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of
the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord
hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath
all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked." (Alma
34:35.)



-- 102 --

WHAT DOTH IT PROFIT A MAN?

Worldly Gain--Eternal Loss

"FOR what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
(Mark 8:36-37).

These are questions put by the Teacher of teachers. They are related;
we may consider them as one. Simple, like unto all the Master's
teachings--for high precept and profound philosophy are embodied in
the interrogatory--the question is searching, peremptory, challenging.
Who that hears or reads can brush it aside? Compelling in its incisive
brevity, it is of haunting directness. Once considered, even cursorily,
it will not down; once admitted to the inner consciousness, it will not
out. The baubles of earth are set over against the priceless jewels of
heaven; the fleeting things of mortality are put in contrast with the
enduring verities of eternity.

Granted that this is a material world, and that experience in material
affairs is a pervading and indispensable element in the curriculum of
life's school, it is no less truly a fact that earth-life is neither
the beginning nor the end of individual existence and progression.

Material belongings, relative wealth or poverty, physical
environment--the things on which we are prone to set our hearts and
anchor our aspirations, the things for which we sweat and strive,
ofttimes at the sacrifice of happiness and to the forfeiture of real
success--these after all are but externals, the worth of which in the
reckoning to come shall be counted in terms of the use we have made of
them.

Is the plow more than the field to be furrowed, or the sickle than
the ripened grain? Can gold stay the hunger pangs better than the
nourishing food that the money may buy?

The context with which occurs the crucial interrogation quoted above
points the question sharply: "Whosoever will come after me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will
save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my
sake and the gospel's; the same shall save it."

The cross to be taken up may be heavy, perhaps to be dragged because
too burdensome to be borne. We are apt to assume that self-denial is
the sole material of our cross; but this is true only as we regard
self-denial in its broadest sense, comprising both positive and
negative aspects. One man's cross may consist mostly in refraining from
doings to which he is inclined, another's in doing what he would fain
escape. One's besetting sin is evil indulgence; his neighbor's a lazy
inattention to the activities required by the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
coupled perchance with puritanical rigor in other observances.

But the great question, striking home to every thoughtful soul, is that
of the Master--"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole
world and lose his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26).

It is possible then for a man to lose his own soul. To deny is to
reject the Lord's own doctrine. The safeguard against such incalculable
loss is specifically indicated--to follow the Savior; and this can mean
only keeping His commandments, whatever the temporary suffering or
worldly sacrifice may be.

The occasion of Christ's question with its accompanying brief but
forceful discourse was this: He had reiterated to the disciples, with
greater directness than ever before, the facts of His approaching death
and the ignominy that would be forced upon Him. Peter, impetuous and
impulsive as ever, exclaimed "Be it far from thee Lord: this shall not
be unto thee." In that remark, though well-intended and bold, lay the
suggestion that Jesus should avert the impending tragedy to Himself,
and save His own life. The Lord's reply to Peter was a rebuke of the
severest kind.

Then followed the avowal that one who saves his life at the cost of
righteous duty shall lose it, and the comforting assurance that he who
is ready to sacrifice his life in the Master's service shall find it.
If this be true with life as the stake, how more so shall it be with
wealth, station, worldly power, or pet but false theory and doctrine,
as the thing to be gained or lost?

Consider the words of Jacob the Nephite:

"O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When
they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto
the counsel of God for they set it aside, supposing they know of
themselves--wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth
them not. . .. Behold, the way for man is narrow but it lieth in a
straight course before him; and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One
of Israel; and He employeth no servant there; and there is none other
way, save it be by the gate, for He cannot be deceived; for the Lord
God is His name. And whoso knocketh, to him will He open; and the wise,
and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of
their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches; yea, they are they,
whom He despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and
consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of
humility, he will not open unto them." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9).



-- 103 --

THE GARDEN OF GOD

And the Weeds of Human Culture

"BUT He answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath
not planted, shall be rooted up." (Matt. 15:13.)

This significant and comprehensive avowal by the Lord Jesus Christ
while in the flesh was spoken by way of rejoinder to a report from
certain disciples that the Pharisees were offended at His doctrine.
Some of the learned scribes and punctilious Pharisees had voiced the
criticism that our Lord's disciples were in transgression because they
ignored the tradition respecting the ceremonial washing of hands. The
Master's rebuke was incisive and severe. He demanded of the casuistical
complainers: "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your
tradition?" And He cited the glaring instance of the then current
violation of the Divine command respecting the honor due to parents
from their children, as occasioned by the hierarchic vagary of the
Corban practise, by which undutiful children were enabled to escape
their filial obligations. Then, calling to the multitude He loudly
proclaimed, in denunciation of the unlawful exaction of arbitrary rule:
"Hear and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a
man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man."

Who that heard could fail to note the clear differentiation between
man-made rules and Divine law, between human tradition and the
commandments of God?

Then followed the sweeping declaration cited above. What were the
plants of Pharisaical tradition but noxious tares, doomed to be rooted
up and burned?

Only the wheat of Divine planting shall be gathered into the garner
of the Lord. But, as so impressively taught in parable, the wholesome
grain and the poisonous tares are allowed to grow together for a
season, lest perchance the premature extirpation of the weeds imperil
the wheat.

Nations and kingdoms rise and fall, sometimes by God's immediate
direction and through the instrumentality of men foreordained to the
occasion, sometimes by Divine permission or allowance incident to the
exercise of individual or national agency.

I cannot believe that God ever planted the noisome fungus of tyranny or
kingly despotism. Nevertheless it has been permitted to flourish rankly
in the soil of ignorance and false tradition; and its spores have been
surreptitiously scattered even in the fields of fair freedom's flowers.

With God as with man there is a time of seeding and a time of harvest.
Only now has the world been even measurably prepared for government
based on the consent of the people, for the kind of government that
shall yet be established in other lands as it has been already
developed in America. Fifty, twenty, aye, even ten years ago, to
have attempted forcibly to uproot the weeds of autocracy would have
endangered the precious wheat of real democracy. There is a dominant
element of timeliness in all the works of God. Verily He doeth all
things well, and in propitious season.

Have you never read that in the last days all things shall be in
commotion? We live in the predicted time of shaking, when every
unstable structure shall totter, and only such as are established upon
an eternal foundation shall stand. The writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews so understood, as witness his admonitory precept:

"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh." The reference is to Christ.
"For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much
more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from
heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised,
saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And
this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that
are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot
be shaken may remain." (Heb. 12:25-27.)

The things of God are not to be shaken even by the boom of man's
heaviest artillery; they shall abide in spite of bomb and shell. But
the works of human craft shall be shattered. Not only so as to material
structures, but likewise man's sophistries, erroneous theories,
conjectures, philosophy, and such science as is falsely so called.

Institutions of human origin may persist long years, but shall surely
come to an end. In and after the resurrection they shall have neither
place nor name. Institutions established by the authority of heaven
alone can endure.

To administer in the ordinances of God requires an authority
distinctively different from any that man can originate or arrogate to
himself. Let Caesar regulate the things of Caesar, if you will, but let
not Caesar essay to administer the things of God. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ is eternal, it shall never be destroyed nor shaken. The laws
of God are immutable and compliance therewith, in mode as well as in
spirit, is indispensable to salvation. Thus hath the Lord decreed:

"Behold! mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a
house of confusion. Will I accept of an offering, saith the Lord, that
is not made in my name! Or, will I receive at your hands that which I
have not appointed! And will I appoint unto you, saith the Lord, except
it be by law, even as I and my Father ordained unto you, before the
world was! I am the Lord thy God, and I give unto you this commandment,
that no man shall come unto the Father but by me, or by my word, which
is my law, saith the Lord. And everything that is in the world, whether
it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or
things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me, or by my
word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not remain after
men are dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith the Lord
your God. For whatsoever things remain are by me; and whatsoever things
are not by me shall be shaken and destroyed." (D&C 132.)



-- 104 --

THE LAST DISPENSATION

Today is the Sum of all the Yesterdays

THE student of history recognizes distinct epochs, periods and ages
in the chronicles of events, and classifies his subject-matter
accordingly. Single facts and isolated occurrences may be of immediate
importance; but when studied in relation to one another they take on a
vastly augmented significance.

This is equally true with respect to both secular and sacred history.
In the latter field, which comprises the record of God's direct
dealings with man and the unfolding of the Divine purpose as attested
by prophecy and its fulfilment, the existence of progressive plan and
orderly design is strikingly apparent.

Holy Writ affirms a succession of dispensations, each characterized
by distinctive features of Divine authority and commission revealed
to man. Illustrative of these dispensations are the Adamic, the
Noachian, the Abrahamic, and the Mosaic. In due course came the
Meridian dispensation, glorified by the personal ministry of our
Lord, the Christ; and this was immediately succeeded by the Apostolic
dispensation.

Both Christ and the Apostles foretold a great falling away, a general
apostasy, a long era of spiritual darkness, which was to be succeeded
by a new dispensation distinguished by the restoration of the Gospel
and the establishment of the Church of Christ on earth for the last
time. The Scriptures affirm that the new dispensation is to comprise
all the authority, powers, and gifts of earlier dispensations, and is
therefore distinctively a time of restitution, reorganization, and
restoration. It is appropriately named the Last Dispensation, and the
Dispensation of the Fulness of Times.

The comprehensiveness of this period of restoration was forcefully
expressed by Paul: "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven, and which are on earth." (Eph. 1:10.)

Peter, addressing the penitent Jews, who were pricked to the heart
because of their guilty consciousness of having consented to the Lord's
death, held out to them hope of forgiveness in a time then far future,
the time of restitution of which the prophets had spoken. Ponder his
profound admonition and assuring promise:

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the
Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto
you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all
things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets
since the world began." (Acts 3:19-21.)

The Dispensation of the Fulness of Times has been inaugurated. The
Gospel of Jesus Christ is again preached upon earth, and the Holy
Priesthood is made operative by direct bestowal from the heavens, for
the administration of the ordinances without which no man can enter the
Kingdom of God.

In the year 1820, God the Eternal Father, and His Son Jesus Christ
manifested Themselves as bodily Personages to Joseph Smith; and from
the mouth of the resurrected and glorified Savior the youthful prophet
received the glad tidings that the predicted time of restoration had
arrived. Thus was ushered in the Last Dispensation. The darkness
incident to the long night of apostasy was dispelled; the glory of the
heavens once more illumined the world; the silence of centuries was
broken; the voice of God was heard again by man.

Visitations of other heavenly personages followed. John the Baptist,
who held the keys of the Lessor or Aaronic Priesthood, appeared as
a resurrected being and conferred upon Joseph Smith authority to
minister in the ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins. Peter,
James and John ordained him to the Higher or Melchizedek Priesthood,
including the Holy Apostleship; Moses brought to earth the commission
of gathering scattered Israel; Elijah transmitted the appointment of
vicarious service in behalf of the dead. (See Mal. 4:5, 6.)

The great consummation shall be realized in the return of Christ to
earth, in power and glory, to rule and reign, as the holy prophets
have foretold. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appeals
to the world to heed the fast ripening signs of the Lord's coming,
to repent and be baptized, by which means alone is salvation through
Christ attainable. Heed ye the merciful warning of the Lord, our Savior:

"Wherefore, be faithful, praying always, having your lamps trimmed and
burning, and oil with you, that you may be ready at the coming of the
Bridegroom: For behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, that I come
quickly. Even so. Amen." (D&C 33:17-18.)





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