Chapter XXII: Part IV: Miscellaneous Discourses (3)

But, coming to a closer consideration of this "gathering of Israel"--Israel is gathering all right; perhaps not after our conception of it, not after our ideas as to how Israel should or would be gathered. Nevertheless, Israel, I say, is gathering to the land of Zion. You Latter-day Saints--whence came you? From the British isles, from Germany, from the Scandinavian countries, from the islands of the sea. Who are you? Israelites, gathered by the gospel message, which includes the word of God to you to gather together on this land of Zion. You are chiefly of the tribe of Ephraim, according to the inspired utterances of the patriarchs who pronounce blessings upon your heads. Well, if you--gathered from a multitude of nations--are of Israel, may not Israel, by hundreds of thousands and millions, be in the lands whence you came, which was chiefly from the northern lands of Europe? for our mission has had little success among the Latin races of southern Europe. You have been gathered by the proclamation of the gospel and are of Israel; and not only are you who have received the gospel gathered, but your kindred Germans, your kindred Scandinavians, your kindred Britishers, have also been coming to the land of Zion. Indeed, it seems that America is an asylum for all people; and even races that we fain would close our gates against, in spite of all the wisdom and caution and legislation of our national legislators and the administrative officers of our government, they, too, come to the land of Zion; and who shall say that these races have not inheritance in Zion? This western hemisphere is not only granted to the descendants of Joseph in Israel, not only to it will come those of the lost tribes of Israel, but the gentile races also have promise of an inheritance in this land; and here shall they receive the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ; receiving it at the hands of the children of Ephraim, upon whom commission has been bestowed and divine authority given to preach the gospel and administer in its ordinances. So Israel is being gathered in these last days to the land of Zion, and here gentile races are also assembling. Here in the United States alone we can reach more Germans than we can preach to in Germany, because of the limitations of religious liberty in Germany. Here we may preach to more English people than in England. Here we may preach to more Scandinavians than we can preach to in Scandinavia. Here we have opportunity to teach the truth unto gathered Israel in this blest land of Zion, and here and among the other known nations of the earth is full scope and opportunity for the accomplishment of all those things that have been predicted by the servants of God in all ages of the world respecting Israel, without assuming that it is necessary to go into the north polar regions or to detached portions of the earth somewhere in illimitable space.

VI.

PURPOSES OF GOD WILL NOT FAIL.

The purposes of God are not failing. God is imminent in this world, and is fashioning it according to his own divine purposes. There will be no failure in Jehovah's plans. The only thing is, Can we so enlarge our thought, can we lift ourselves from the narrow limits of our thinking in which we are so contented to walk--can we take broader views in relation to God's purposes and messages to the children of men? That is the only question. The Lord Almighty, I repeat, is accomplishing his designs in relation to the land of Zion; in relation to the gathering of Israel and the return of the ten tribes; just as he will accomplish his purposes with reference to the re-establishment of Judah upon the promised land of Canaan, and the redemption of Jerusalem. All this will come about in its times and seasons. The word of the Lord will go forth from Jerusalem, and the law will go forth from Zion--nay, in my view, it is now going forth in large measure from Zion--in a manner to reach the inhabitants of the earth, and bring to them the blessings that God has decreed for the children of men.

My brethren and sisters, I rejoice in the largeness of this work of God--this dispensation of the fulness of times. I love it, in part, because of its greatness--in its very bigness there is inspiration. I love to contemplate the purposes of God in their far-reaching possibilities. I rejoice to feel that today the children of men are moving up to a higher and truer conception of the things of God. We talk about, and we sometimes even dare to hope for, the coming of the millennium! I wonder what our sensations will be if some morning we wake up to a realization that the millennium is already on its way, and has been on its way for some time? When I think of the mighty progress that has been made in these modern days, and especially since God opened the heavens and revealed himself unto his servant Joseph Smith; when I take that circumstance as a starting point and contrast conditions as they are today with conditions as they were when that first revelation was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, it seems to me that the prediction that old things shall pass away and all things shall become new is on the way to a very rapid fulfillment. At that time--early in the third decade of the nineteenth century--not a single foot of railroad existed anywhere in the world; today, all civilized nations are a network of railroads and railroad systems. We have moved all the way from the ox-cart and stage-coach to the mighty express train that thunders with lightning speed throughout the land. Distance is discounted--well nigh annihilated, in comparison with former times. In ocean navigation we have come from the rude vessel that could only be driven by the wind, to the mighty ocean greyhounds that speed across the oceans like express trains; and the oceans, once a dreaded mystery, are now but the convenient highways between the continents, the highways of commerce! Man, within the period we are considering, has not only mastered transportation upon the earth and upon the ocean; but we have recent demonstrations that man has mastered also the element of air; and may navigate the air with as great speed and ease as the land or the water. Within the period named--1820-1909--we have come all the way from the tallow dip to the electric light. In communication we have come from the pony express to the telegraph, and to the wireless telegraph, and the telephone; so that now we are in instant communication with all portions of the earth. No event of any moment may happen tonight that will not be spread upon the pages of tomorrow morning's press, which will await us upon our breakfast tables! Then in the way of advancements that give promise of peace--so mighty have become the engines of destruction; so revolutionary the promises of this recent mastery of the air, that it would seem that war must be an impossibility in the near future; and it becomes imperative that men devise--statesmen must devise, philanthropists must devise, patriots must devise--some means by which the international questions that arise may be settled without allowing nations to go to the dreadful arbitrament of war for a settlement. The time when swords shall be beaten into plow-shares, and spears into pruning hooks seems not far distant, even the time when nations shall learn war no more--the vision of the prophets! These are the conditions in the midst of which we live: A time when property is more secure than it ever was before in the world; a time when personal liberty is more secure than ever it was before in the world; a time when the comforts of life among the masses of mankind well nigh equal conditions that only kings could enjoy in ages that are past! When I see all these blessings, and realize that year by year they are increasing with accelerated speed--when I see the sentiment of universal brotherhood enlarging--when I see great and mighty intellects pushing far out upon the frontier of Christian thought, grasping the truths of God and weaving them into systems of practical philosophy, tending to make ready the inhabitants of the earth for that fulness of truth that God, through his prophets, has decreed should be poured out upon the nations of the earth in the last days,--when I see these evidences of man's progress within the last three-quarters of a century, since God spoke from heaven to Joseph Smith, I can not help but believe that there is some connection between the re-opening of the heavens to restore the gospel, and this wider diffusion of knowledge by which the comfort and enlightenment of men as to material things has been brought to pass--the golden age that prophets dreamed of, that prophets sang about--the golden age--the millennium--has at last dawned upon the earth! And right here, in the midst of it, God has established his Church. He has given to it the knowledge of the means of salvation. He has given to the Church divine authority to administer in the ordinances of the gospel, and the coming forth of this work is the herald of the modern world's awakening! For when the Book of Mormon came forth, by that token Israel might know, and the world might know, that God had set his hand to fulfil and accomplish the things that he had decreed concerning the gathering of Israel, and concerning all the inhabitants of the earth--their happiness and peace and glory and security. (II Nephi 30, and III Nephi 21.) This is our part of the work; to make proclamation of these things; to exemplify the law of God and the excellence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; to proclaim to the children of men that God is not a God afar off--One who transcends the world; but God imminent in the world, and that men may connect their lives with the life of God; and feel the inspiration of his life vibrating in their lives, uplifting, purifying, exalting--until man, the individual, and communities of men, nations--may walk with God in this great age now dawning on the world! And yet, great as our conceptions may be of the things of God--divine things--be assured that the divine things themselves are infinitely greater than our conceptions of them can be--then how great indeed they must be! The prophet spoke truly when he said of God: "His thoughts are not as your thoughts; his ways are not as your ways; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his thoughts above your thoughts, and his ways above your ways." But while we are under the necessity of conceding the truth of that, may we not share in and enjoy in some measure a knowledge of divine things and therein rejoice, as I feel we do this day by this brief glimpse of some of the things of God?

IV.

MORMONISM AS A BODY OF DOCTRINE.

A discourse at the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Sunday, March 13, 1910. (Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.)

I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Some time ago, within a year at least, a gentleman of some prominence in the public life of our state felt that he had occasion in a public address to allude to our religious faith as a "body of doctrine," and in doing so I think he exhausted his skill in framing an expression of contempt for it. He said:

_"I will venture it as my individual opinion, that considered as
a body of doctrine, no well instructed person would give this
priesthood creed, the cold respect of a passing glance_."

It is not worth while getting vexed over such expressions as that. They do no harm to our faith, nor to our society--the Church. Such a remark may lead one to wonder if the gentleman, who has some reputation for intelligence, and especially for his ability in following to logical conclusions any investigation he may undertake--I say such a remark may lead one to wonder if the gentleman himself has paid our faith the "cold respect of the passing glance" to which he refers; or has he presumed to pass judgment upon it without even such "a passing glance"--since he assumes with such air-sniffing loftiness and pride of intellect that "no well instructed person"--of which he is one, of course--would give it? For my own part, the only effect that this remark had upon me was to send me back in a half amused frame of mind to see if things pertaining to our creed were really as bad as that; and once more, I examined the foundations of our faith. I returned from that examination with my convictions deepened, with my respect and admiration very much increased for this body of doctrine so contemptuously characterized by this gentleman, and my faith in it strengthened. When called upon, this afternoon, to address you, it seemed to me that I could do you no better service than to give you the benefit of an examination of our faith as a body of doctrine--so far as possible in one sitting; and this holds good whether you be strangers within our gates, or members of the Church.

It is a good thing, occasionally, to recur to first principles, as a means of keeping in view the whole system for which we stand. Every religion must have some sort of philosophy; it must give some accounting for things; some explanation of life and its meaning; some explanation of the universe and whither things trend. Religion must address itself to the understanding as well as to the heart; to the reason as well as to the emotions. Religion has been described by one as "morality touched with emotion" and, in some of its aspects, I think that is a very happy description of religion. But we are living in an age that asks adult questions, and religion must give adult replies. I think our faith is capable of doing that. I love it because it appeals to my understanding as well as to the emotions of my heart; and consequently, when I heard this contemptuous reference to it, I resolved to do what I could by exposition of that faith, to show this gentleman, and those who think with him, how mistaken they were. So now to our task:

II.

Mormon View of the Universe.

First, concerning the world itself--I mean by that expression the sum total of things, the universe. In 1832 the Prophet Joseph Smith came with this message, in one of the revelations contained in the Book of Covenants:

"All kingdoms have a law given: and there are many kingdoms; for
there is no space in the which there is no kingdom; and there is no
kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser
kingdom."

By this term "kingdom" our Prophet does not have in contemplation a number of people ruled by a king; the context reveals the fact that the prophet had in mind those great planetary systems which make up the universe. These are the "kingdoms" he had in mind; and he announces here a very wonderful doctrine, when he declares that there is no space but what has in it some one or other of these kingdoms--worlds and world-systems; and that there is no kingdom in the which there is not also extension, or space. A great scientist and scholar expresses the same truth in the following language:

"Through all eternity the infinite universe has been, and is,
subject to the law of substance: The extent of the universe is
infinite and unbounded. It is empty in no part, but everywhere
filled with substance. The duration of the world is equally
infinite and unbounded. It has no end; it is eternity."

Such is the summing up of what he calls the "law of substance," by one of the profoundest minds of Germany, Ernest Haeckel. Analyze it, and you will find it precisely the same conception as that announced by our Prophet in 1832, when he said: "There is no space in the which there is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space." I think, perhaps, it will be necessary to dwell upon that idea for a few minutes in order that we may grasp the thought in something of its immensity. I had a teacher, once, who was very skilful in imparting knowledge to his pupils in the matter of solving mathematical problems. The lines on which he proceeded were these: He would take a very simple example that involved the same principles that were to be applied in the more difficult problem; then he would work out the simple problem and tell us to work out the more difficult one in the same manner. So I am of opinion that if we spend a short time in considering our own little solar system, perhaps it will help us form some idea of the immensity of the universe of which we speak.

It is well known to you all that our solar system is made up of what the astronomers call eight major planets and a great number of minor planets, lying between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter; that our planets in the order of their relationship of nearness to the sun, consist of Mercury, Venus, the earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, these are the eight major planets. In diameter, we are told that Mercury measures 3,200 miles; that the diameter of Venus is 7,760 miles; that the earth is 7,918 miles in diameter; that Mars is 4,200 miles in diameter; that Jupiter is 85,000 miles in diameter (while our earth is less than 8,000 miles in diameter, be it remembered!); that the diameter of Saturn is 73,000 miles. Yet, take all these planets and all their satellites, wonderful and great as they are, and consider them melted down into one great sphere, and still our sun alone, the center of this planetary system, is upwards of 750 times as large as all these planets combined would be!

Let us now consider these several planets with reference to the distance at which they revolve about their primary--the sun. Mercury makes the circuit in 116 days; Venus makes the circuit around the sun in 224 days; the earth of course, as you remember, makes the circuit in 365 days; but Mars requires 687 days in which to make the journey; while Jupiter requires 4,330 days (more than 11 years); Saturn 10,767 days (more than 29 years); Uranus, 20,660 days, or 56 years; and Neptune, 60,127 days, or about 165 years.

The distances of these planets from the sun, in millions of miles, are as follows: Mercury is 36 millions of miles; Venus 67 millions; the earth 92 millions; Mars 141 millions; Jupiter 483 millions; Saturn 875 millions; Uranus 1,770 millions; Neptune 2,746 millions of miles.

These figures and the facts they represent are given that some little idea may be conceived as to the extent of our own solar system, that after contemplating its immensity and discovering that, inconceivably great as it is, it is still no very considerable part of the universe, we may arise to a brief contemplation of still greater spaces--depths of the universe, and their contents. You see, I am using our solar system, as the teacher referred to a moment ago used the simple problem in arithmetic, to help solve the more intricate problem of comprehending a little more clearly the immensity of the universe. Let us resume our work. Professor Newcomb in his "Popular Astronomy" makes use of the following illustration to help the popular mind grasp the immensity of the sidereal system:

"Turning our attention from this system to the thousands of fixed
stars which stud the heavens, the first thing to be considered is
their enormous distance asunder, compared with the dimensions of
the solar system, though the latter are themselves inconceivably
great. To give an idea of the relative distances, suppose a voyager
through the celestial spaces could travel from the sun to the
outermost planet of our system in 24 hours. So enormous would be
his velocity, that it would carry him across the Atlantic ocean,
from New York to Liverpool, in less than a tenth of a second of the
clock. Starting from the sun with this velocity, he would cross the
orbits of the inner planets in rapid succession, and the outer ones
more slowly, until, at the end of a single day, he would reach the
confines of our system, crossing the orbit of Neptune. But, though
he passed eight planets the first day, he would pass none the next,
for he would have to journey 18 or 20 years, without diminution of
speed, before he would reach the nearest star, and would then have
to continue his journey as far again before he could reach another.
All the planets of our system would have vanished in the distance,
in the course of the first three days, and the sun would be but an
insignificant star in the firmament. The conclusion is, that our
sun is one of an enormous number of self-luminous bodies scattered
at such distances that years would be required to traverse the
space between them, even when the voyager went at the rate we have
supposed." (Newcomb's Astronomy, p. 104.)

Just now the great winter constellations are leaving our skies; still, in the evening, you may yet see Orion, in the western sky; and following, and shining most brightly of all the stars in the firmament, the Dog star. It is estimated by our astronomers that light travels through space at the enormous speed of 198,000 miles per second; that in about eight minutes a ray of light reaches our earth from the sun.

Yet, this Dog star, to which I call your attention, is so distant from us that it requires something like 16 years for a ray of light to reach us from that distant and splendid sun; and from the familiar Pole star, it requires 40 years for a ray of light to reach our earth. Mr. Samuel Kinns, well known in England, as one of the foremost thinkers in that land, tells us that this Dog star, judging from the amount of light emitted from him, is 3,000 times larger than our own sun; and he argues, that if this great primary, is so many times larger than our sun, may it not be possible that the retinue of planets of which he is doubtless the center, is correspondingly greater than our planetary system.

Nobody knows, of course, how many fixed stars there are. Our astronomers tell us they number all the way from 30 to 50, 60, or even hundreds of millions; and that it is not unreasonable to suppose, they argue, that since we find this little planet of ours inhabited by sentient beings, by intelligences, by men and women capable of establishing national governments, and high grades of civilization, it is not unreasonable to suppose that in some of these more magnificent world-systems there may be beings more intelligent, more powerful than we are, and further advanced in arts and Sciences and all that goes to make up superior methods of life and civilization. And if our astronomers are anywhere nearly right in relation to the scores of millions of suns, they report, and it is true, that they are the centers of planetary systems, then of course of worlds such as ours, and more magnificent than ours; there are hundreds of millions. Upon this head Professor John W. Draper says:

"Man when he looks upon the countless multitudes of stars--when he
reflects that all he sees is only a small portion of those which
exist, yet that each is a light and life-giving sun to multitudes
of opaque, and therefore invisible worlds--when he considers the
enormous size of these various bodies and their immeasurable
distance from one another, may form an estimate of the scale on
which the world (universe) is constructed."

These reflections I trust will help to impress upon our minds the immensity of the universe, until we can in some measure understand the greatness of that truth announced by the Prophet Joseph, when he said: "There are many kingdoms; and there is no space in which there is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser space;" and the deductions of Ernest Haeckel, when he said: "The extent of the universe is infinite and unbounded. It is empty in no part, but every where filled with substance. The duration of the world is equally infinite and unbounded. It has no end; it is eternity."

Mormonism recognizes certain eternal truths, necessary truths, because the opposite of them cannot be conceived of--as, for example, that space or extension is boundless, as one of our hymns puts it:

"If you could hie to Kolob,
In the twinkling of an eye,
And then continue onward,
With that same speed to fly--

"Do you think that you could ever,
Through all eternity,
Find out the generation
Where Gods began to be?

"Or see the grand beginning,
Where space did not extend?
Or view the last creation,
Where Gods and matter end?"

You cannot limit space in any conception of it you may form--try how you will; for as soon as you fix the limitation, your mind conceives extension beyond the point you fix upon, and you may fix it as distant as you please. So, also, in relation to duration. Mormonism recognizes no limit to duration. Time is endless; there is no absolute beginning or end of time. All beginnings and endings spoken of are but relative, and concern not duration absolutely, but "time" within eternity, when a certain order of things begins or when it reaches an end. We measure duration so, and call it time. So in relation to matter. Mormonism recognizes the eternity of matter and also eternity of spirit; that matter is uncreated; spirit is also uncreated. These, spirit and matter, are eternal existences, constituting what our Book of Mormon speaks of as "things to act and things to be acted upon." (II Nephi ii:14.)

Referring back now to the immensity of the universe--to this limitless, heaving, restless ocean of worlds and world-systems--is it inhabited by sentient beings? Or stands it tenantless save only for our own little earth--less than the single grain of sand on limitless sea shores? On this head Sir Robert Ball, one of the leading men of science in England has a most thoughtful passage; and though it would seem to open again the subject of the immensity of the universe on which we have already dwelt over long, still I cannot consent to omit any part of what follows:

"We know of the existence of 30,000,000 of stars or suns, many
of them much more magnificent than the one which gives light to
our system. The majority of them are not visible to the eye, or
even recognizable by the telescope, but sensitized photographic
plates--which are for this purpose eyes that can stare unwinking
for hours at a time--have revealed their existence beyond all
doubt or question, though most of them are almost inconceivably
distant, thousands of tens of thousands of times as far off as our
sun. A telegraphic message, for example, which would reach the sun
in eight minutes, would not reach some of these stars in 1,800
years. The human mind, of course, does not really conceive such
distances, though they can be expressed in formula which the human
mind has devised, and the bewildering statement is from one point
of view singularly depressing, it reduces so greatly the probable
importance of man in the universe. It is most improbable, almost
impossible, that these great centers of light should have been
created to light up nothing, and as they are far too distant to be
of use to us, we may fairly accept the hypothesis that each one
has a system of planets around it like our own. Taking an average
of only 10 planets to each sun, that hypothesis indicates the
existence, within the narrow range to which human observation is
still confined, of at least 300,000,000 of separate worlds, many
of them doubtless of gigantic size, and it is nearly inconceivable
that those worlds can be wholly devoid of living and sentient
beings upon them. Granting the, to us, impossible hypothesis that
the final cause of the universe is accident, a fortuitous concourse
of self-existent atoms, still the accident which produced thinking
beings upon this little and inferior world must have frequently
repeated itself; while if, as we hold, there is a sentient Creator,
it is difficult to believe, without a revelation to that effect,
that he has wasted such glorious creative power upon mere masses
of insensible matter. God cannot love gases. The probability, at
least, is that there are millions of worlds--for after all, what
the sensitized paper sees must be but an infinitesimal fraction of
the whole occupied by sentient beings."

This is as far as scientific men may go. Our astronomers stand upon our earth with their telescopes directed to the planet Mars, which most nearly resembles the physical conditions of our own earth, so far as may be judged, and they speculate as to whether or not Mars is inhabited. And while they thus stand halting, our Prophet, through the revelations of God and the inspiration of the Almighty that was in him, proclaimed these worlds and world-systems to be inhabited by the sons and daughters of God. Let me read a passage of Mormon scripture to you:

"There are many kingdoms; for there is no space in the which there
is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space,
either a greater or a lesser kingdom;

"And unto every kingdom is given a law; and unto every law there
are certain bounds also and conditions. * *

"Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms, that ye may understand?

"Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or
the least of these, hath seen God moving in his majesty and power.

"Behold, I will liken these kingdoms unto a man having a field and
he sent forth his servants into the field to labor in the field;

"And he said unto the first, go ye, and labor in the field, and in
the first hour I will come unto you, and ye shall behold the joy of
my countenance;

"And he said unto the second, go ye also into the field, and in the
second hour I will visit you with the joy of my countenance"--and
so he said unto all.

"And thus they all received the light of the countenance of their
lord; every man in his hour, and in his time, and in his season;

"Beginning at the first, and so on unto the last, and from the last
unto the first, and from the first unto the last.

* * * *

"Therefore, unto this parable will I liken all these kingdoms, and
the inhabitants thereof; every kingdom in its hour, and in its
time, and in its season; even according to the decree which God
hath made."

The late Elder Orson Pratt, in a Footnote, commenting upon the above passages says:

"The inhabitants of each planet blessed with the presence and
visits of their Creator."

That which scientific men may only properly say is a probability,
the Prophet Joseph boldly proclaims as revealed truth--the universe
is not tenantless, but is inhabited by sentient beings--the
offspring of Divine Beings.

III.

PHILOSOPHY OF MORMONISM.

I think now we have sufficient data before us on which we may proceed to the consideration of the philosophy of Mormonism.

With your permission, then, and asking you to bear with me and follow me as closely as you can in what I now have to offer, I will read--because one ought to be careful in stating conceptions of important things--I will read to you a few paragraphs touching these great and, I think, essential principles of so-called Mormonism that ought to be considered when we are discussing Mormonism as a body of doctrine. I trust we shall arrive at the conclusion, finally, that it is worth more than the "respect of a passing glance." It would be difficult to characterize Mormon philosophy under any of the schools extant. "Eternalism" I should select as the word best suited for its philosophic conceptions. It is dualistic, but not in the sense that it breaks up the universe into two entirely distinct substances--the material world and an "immaterial God,"--as the Christian philosophy, in the main does. It is also monistic, but not in the sense that in the last analysis of things it recognizes no distinctions in matter, or that matter--gross material--and spirit, or mind, a finer and thinking kind of material, are fused into one inseparable sole substance which is at once "God and nature," as the monists claim. Its dualism is that which, while recognizing an infinitely extended substance, the universe, unbounded and empty in no part, but everywhere filled with substance--it holds, nevertheless, that such substance exists in two principle modes, having some qualities in common, and in others being distinct; first, gross material, usually recognized as matter, pure and simple; and, second, a finer, thinking substance, usually regarded by other systems of thought as "spirit," i.e., "immaterial substance"--if one may use terms so contradictory. These two kinds of matter have existed from all eternity and will exist to eternity, in intimate relations. Neither produces the other, they are eternal existences--"things to act and things to be acted upon." The monism of Mormonism, alluded to a moment since, while recognizing the universe as infinitely extended substance and all substance as material--and hence, in this respect, monistic; yet it also recognizes the world substance as being of two kinds: one gross material; the other a finer, or thinking material; having some qualities in common with gross matter, and in others being distinct. "All spirit is matter," said our Prophet, "but it is more fine or pure [i.e., than gross matter tangible to our ordinary senses] and can only be discerned by purer eyes. We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter."

After these distinctions are made and all the while held in consciousness, so that there shall not be a loss of distinction in things, nor a confounding of things, we may hereafter use the terms "intelligence" and "matter"--equivalent of mind and matter--as naming the two modes in which, for Mormonism, the eternal and infinitely extended substance, the universe, exists. To say that intelligence dominates matter and produces all the ceaseless changes going on in the universe, both of creation and demolition, for both forces are operating--as our Pearl of Great Price says: "There are many worlds that have passed away, by the world of my [God's] power; and there are many that now stand; and as one earth shall pass away and the heavens thereof, even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works;" and hence the creation and demolition to which reference is here made. To say that mind dominates matter, I repeat, is merely to say that the superior dominates the inferior; that which acts is greater than that which is acted upon; that mind is the eternal cause of the "ever becoming" in the universe, the cause and sustainer of the cosmic world. It is also to say that mind is power; that mind possesses as qualities the power of thought, and will, and life, and love.

As the grosser material exists ultimately in elements that are themselves eternal--uncreated and uncreatable, so the finer or thinking substance, intelligence is eternal--uncreated and uncreatable. That is the doctrine of the revelation, which says: "Man was in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created, or made--neither, indeed, can be;" and as the gross material, atoms, exist, some in organized worlds and world-systems, the cosmos; and also others in chaotic mass, so the intelligences, intelligent entities, exist in somewhat analogous states, some in the form of perfected exalted men clothed upon with immortal bodies, as the Christ was--nay, rather is now, today, and participating in a nature that is divine--having won their exaltation through stress and trial in the various estates or changes through which they have passed; other intelligences exist in spirit bodies, less tangible than the first class, possessed of less experience, less of power and dignity, but still they are in the way of progress through other estates yet to be experienced by them; also intelligences not yet begotten spirits, not yet united with elements of the grosser substance, union with which is essential to the highest development of intelligences. You find this last doctrine mainly-recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, as follows:

"The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably
connected" [as in the case of resurrected, glorified personages]
"inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; and when
separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy." "The elements are
the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even
temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled God shall destroy that
temple."

Such is the Mormon view of the universe and the modes of existence in it, briefly outlined. These existences, both of the thinking substance and the grosser materials, are subject to infinite changes and development in which there are no ultimates. Each succeeding wave of progress may attain higher and ever higher degrees of excellence, but never attain perfection: The ideal recedes ever as it is approached; and, hence, progress is eternal, even for the highest of existences.

One other thought in connection with all these matters. I read to you a few moments ago a passage to the effect that "to all these kingdoms of the infinite universe is given a law, and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions." Later in the same revelation this is added: "Verily I say unto you he, [God] hath given a law unto all things by which they move in their times and in their seasons. And their courses are fixed; even the courses of the heavens and the earth, which comprehend the earth and all the planets; and they give light to each other in their times and in their season, in their minutes, in their hours, in their days, in their weeks, in their months, in their years; all these are one year with God, but not with man."

In passing it may be interesting to note respecting the idea expressed above, viz., that "to every law there are certain bounds also and conditions,"--that a remarkable statement was made by a learned man of our own country touching this same principle. The passage quoted from Joseph Smith bears the date of December, 1832. Sixty-three years afterwards, Henry Drummond, speaking upon this principle of law being limited by law--or law itself being under the dominion of law--said:

"One of the most striking generalizations of recent science is that
even laws have their law."

That is to say, even unto laws there are certain bounds and conditions that limit them. Let me illustrate it, if I can. The old-time mariner, say of a hundred years ago, knew nothing of nature's forces applied to navigation except the tides, the ocean currents, and the winds. He believed these were all the propelling forces that entered into ocean navigation. If he were alive today, and could see one of our great ocean greyhounds, the modern passenger ocean steamship, dashing through the waves dead against both ocean currents and the wind, and yet making greater speed than he could ever attain in his sailing vessel with both wind and the tide in his favor, he would declare that he beheld a miracle. But that would not be true. We of today, with our knowledge of other forces than those of wind and ocean currents operating in ocean navigation, look upon the steamship's speed as perfectly natural. The natural forces with which the mariner of a hundred years ago was acquainted are simply overcome by other forces in nature; not in violation of any natural law, but through the application of forces unknown to the sailor of a hundred years ago. So, doubtless we shall find it true in relation to nearly all laws or forces that exist. We shall find still other laws, still other forces, that limit or supercede, when applied, the forces now known to us.

But what I wanted to do is merely to call your attention to the fact that Mormonism teaches this very great doctrine, viz., that the whole universe--unlimited and unbounded as it is, and having within it and now operating processes both of evolution and devolution--as it is written in the Book of Moses (Pearl of Great Price): "Behold there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they to man. * * * And as one earth shall pass away and the heavens thereof, even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works"--notwithstanding all this is going on in the universe, the operation of both creative and destructive forces, yet we are assured by the word of God as well as by the deductions of scientists and philosophers that all the mighty change going on in the universe, as well as the universe itself, are under the dominion of law; and in the consciousness of the reign of law, our faith teaches us to repose sublime and perfect confidence in the fact that

"God is in his world:
"All is well with the world."

Such I conceive to be the effect of this conception that we live under the reign of law; and that constructive forces predominate in the economy of things, else things that are would not be nor persist.

IV.

SOURCE OF MORAL EVIL.

Now we come to an element in our faith, extremely interesting and that is the transgression of law, which the Apostle John declares to be sin: "for sin," said he, "is the transgression of the law." This transgression of law is a fact that has to be taken into account in the sum of things. The existence of moral evil in the world is one of the problems that has vexed Christian theologians from the earliest of times until now. They have had extreme difficulty in reconciling their conception of God as an absolute being, infinitely wise, all-powerful, all-good, and that he created everything out of nothing, and yet not assign to him the creation of evil. If all things have been produced by an infinitely righteous, perfect, all-powerful, and good Creator, how can moral evil exist in his economy? That is a question to which no satisfactory explanation has yet been found. Mormonism teaches that God does not create moral evil; but that moral evil arises out of the agency of intelligences, and that so long as there are intelligences, possessed of free agency, it means that they can violate law, if they insist upon doing it. To conceive this as impossible would be to deny the free agency of intelligences.

I know there is one passage that, perhaps, might be quoted against my contention, that God does not create evil. It occurs in the writings of Isaiah, it is said--and it is the only place in Scripture where it is said, so far as I have been able to learn--"I [God] make peace," and "I create evil." "I create"--what? "Evil," such as the opposite of peace, such as war, famine, and the like. But to what end does God cause war, or famine? For corrective purposes only, to chastize men, to bring them to a realization of wrong-doing, or national transgression. For these ends God has, sometimes, brought to pass these conditions that we recognize as evil. But that class of evils is quite a distinct thing from moral evil. Though God may bring on a famine, storm, tempest, or war for corrective purposes, yet God is not the creator of falsehood; he is not the creator of slander; nor of drunkenness; nor of avarice, nor malice, nor of robbery, nor unkindness, nor of adulteries. These moral evils are not of his creating. Jesus Christ did not say, "Lead us not into temptation," for, as the Apostle James instructs us, God cannot be tempted of evil. "Let no man," says he, "when he is tempted, say, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed. Then lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." The prayer of the Christ, as taught to his apostles, and as restored through the word of the Lord to our Prophet, is not, "And lead us not into temptation," but "Suffer us not to be led into temptation, deliver us from evil."

So far as moral evil is concerned, then, I say it is not of God's creation. It is one of those possibilities that are eternal. It did not begin with the transgression of Adam upon this earth. It existed before that; even in the heavens, when Lucifer rebelled against the King and majesty of heaven--God. Lucifer had power even there to sin; and so far back as the agency of intelligences extends, there has existed always the possibility of sin; and so far forward as the agency of intelligences shall extend, there will always be the possibility, of the transgression of law, of sin; for sin potentially, is an eternal reality. It is concurrent with the free agency of intelligences.

But God, according to Mormon doctrine, does not create evil, tempt men with it, and then when not sufficiently strong to withstand the temptation, damn them everlastingly for falling. The only way in which God affects men is favorably, that is, he helps them in their apprehension of and their adoption of the good. He does not, according to Mormon doctrine, create intelligence, for that is an independent, self-existing thing; therefore not even God creates man's intelligence, that is uncreated and uncreatable--an eternal thing. As I have said elsewhere, God is not responsible for the use they make of their freedom; nor is he the author of their sufferings when they fall into sin; suffering arises out of the violations of law to which the "intelligence" subscribed, and must be endured until the lessons of obedience to law are learned.

Man has his choice of moving upward or downward in every estate he occupies; often defeating even the benevolent purposes of God respecting him, through his own perverseness; he passes through dire experiences, suffers terribly, yet learns by what he suffers, so that his very suffering becomes a means to his improvement; he learns swiftly or slowly, according to the inherent nature of him, obedience to law; he learns that "that which is governed by law is also preserved by law, and perfected and sanctified by the same; and that which breaketh the law and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice nor judgment. Therefore they must remain filthy still." This conception of things relieves God of the responsibility for the nature and status of intelligences in all stages of their development; their inherent nature and their volition makes them primarily what they are, and this nature they may change, slowly, perhaps, yet change it they may. God has put them in the way of changing it, by enlarging their intelligence through change of environment, and through experiences.

THE PLACE AND MISSION OF CHRIST IN MORMON DOCTRINE.

There is a singular fact connected with this subject of moral evil--of sin. And that is that the transgression of the moral law entails suffering, even as violation of physical law may result in pain, or sickness or death. The way of the transgressor is hard. "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap." "The wages of sin is death." Not only are these truisms, but it is also true that often the righteous are made to suffer because of the transgressions of the wicked. The innocent are involved in the misery of the guilty. No man lives unto himself alone, and he may, and often does involve others in his transgressions. It is possible for the fathers to suffer because of the sins of the children. It is possible for the children to suffer because of the sins of the fathers. Many a father can still exclaim as David did over his wayward son Absalom, "O! my son! Would to God that I had died for thee!" This is one of the difficulties that confront religious thought--the innocent being involved in the sufferings of the guilty. Yet, from the midst of our perplexity over such a seeming injustice as this, there comes to us the mighty testimony that it is not only possible but it is a fact, that the innocent can and do suffer with and because of the transgression of the guilty; may they not also suffer for them, since vicarious suffering is a possibility? On that possibility hinges the whole gospel of the Christ, and the saving power of the atonement. It is deeply written in the experiences of men that the innocent can suffer with and because of the guilty; and it is the doctrine of the Christian revelation that the innocent can suffer for the guilty, as witness the following testimonies: "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for us." "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." "He [the Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. * * * So Christ once suffered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." "Christ also suffered for us. * * Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes we were healed." It is very clear, then, that it is the doctrine of the Christian revelation, which doctrine of course, Mormonism accepts, that Christ suffered for man's transgressions. There is Scripture evidence also, could we but take the time to point it out, to prove that the whole scheme of man's earth-life and his redemption was considered even before the foundations of the earth itself were laid. And the Redeemer chosen and agreed upon and hence was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Paul announces himself as living, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." The facts in brief are that the time came when for the progress of spirit intelligences an earth-life, under conditions such as exist in this world, became necessary to them. To bring to pass that earth-life the union of spirit with earth element and attended by the experiences which such a life would bring, involved transgression of law, involving the race in sin and death from which it was only possible to extricate it by adequate atonement being made to satisfy the claims of inexorable law. In this crisis there arose in the councils in heaven one great, sympathetic Soul who recognized not only the fact that the innocent can suffer with the guilty, or because of the guilty, but _for_ the guilty, and offered himself a sacrifice for the sin that should be committed in breaking the harmony of things in order to give intelligences the advantages of earth-life and its lessons. The Christ would make atonement for Adam's transgression, so that as in Adam all should die, as saith the Scriptures, so in Christ should all be made alive; that "since by man came death, by man should come also the resurrection of the dead." And not only was this vicarious atonement made to cover the transgression of Adam, but it was made to reach also to the individual sins of men, that they might not suffer if they would accept the gospel. The doctrine is better stated in a revelation given to our Prophet than anywhere else in sacred literature, hence I quote that revelation. Let it be borne in mind that transgression of the moral law--sin--is attended upon by suffering, and now this revelation. It was given through the Prophet to Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, reproving him for some of his delinquencies:

"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;

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