Chapter X: Part SEVEN: Powers and Principles (2)

Means and Accessories.--Water, in and of itself, cannot wash away sin; but obedience, typified by the water, can and does, when the ordinance is lawfully and properly administered. [12] The case of Naaman the Syrian, cleansed of leprosy by dipping seven times in the river Jordan, is often cited as an illustration. [13] It was not the water that cured Naaman, but his obedience to the Prophet who had told him to dip seven times in that particular stream. Had he dipped in any other stream, or any other number of times but just seven, his disease would still have clung to him. But he did as he had been directed, and his faith, manifested by his obedience, worked the cure, bringing down the power of God for that purpose. The water was only the medium through which the power operated. Likewise, when Christ anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay, causing him to see, it was faith that wrought the miracle, not the clay, which was only an accessory. It is the same with consecrated oil, as used in the healing ordinance of the Church. [14]

Effect of Baptism.--Baptism cleanses and illumines the soul, and it is by water and by Spirit that the cleansing and illumination come. They are indispensable in the process. The sick can be healed without the use of consecrated oil, or even without the laying on of hands. But no sinner can be baptized--cleansed and illumined--without the water and the Spirit.

Children in Christ.--The effect of baptism is to make men and women childlike--not in ignorance, nor in weakness, but in innocence and humility. "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." By baptism, following faith and repentance and administered by divine authority, the soul is "born again," and is typical, in its infant-like purity, of the soul raised to immortality. By baptism we are as effectually freed from sin, as by death, burial and resurrection, the mortal is changed to immortal and ushered into a new existence. Hence, baptism is termed "the washing of regeneration." Regeneration means "new birth."

Early Christian Views.--The earliest Christians did not doubt the necessity of baptism. On the contrary, they strongly insisted upon it, as indispensable to a saved condition. During the Patristic age--that of the post-apostolic Fathers--the conviction that no soul could be saved without baptism was so firm that it led to pedobaptism--the baptism of infants--and to other innovations upon the primitive faith. It was seen that infants could not believe in Christ, nor repent of sins that they had not committed; but it was held that the Church, or those who stood sponsor for the little ones, could believe for them, and they were baptized for original sin, the sin of Adam, which they were supposed to have inherited. Peter's words in promising the Holy Ghost, "For the promise is unto you and to your children." [15] were construed to sustain infant baptism. It was even assumed that the Savior authorized it in saying, "Suffer little children to come unto me."

Pedobaptism.--Holders of such views have never explained why infant baptism did not become prevalent until two or three centuries after Christ; and why such eminent Christians of the fourth century as Gregory of Nazianzum, the son of a bishop; Basil the Great of Cappadocia; Chrysostom of Antioch, and Augustine of Numida--whose mothers were pious Christians--were not baptized until they were over thirty years of age, Paul's affirmation that "children are holy," [16] and the Savior's declaration, "Of such is the kingdom of God," [17] are a sufficient answer to the assumption that children under the age of accountability have need to be baptized. Those who introduced the practice of baptizing infants for original sin, over-looked or were blind to the fact that Christ atoned for original guilt, and that men are accountable for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression.

Other Innovations.--One innovation led to another. Martyrs who had shed their blood in defense of the Church, or for its sake, but had never confessed Christ nor been baptized--what of them? For their benefit another doctrine was introduced. They were held to have been baptized in their own blood. Finally, out of deference to the claims of a far more numerous class--worthy men and women, many of whom had lived and died before the Christian Church was founded, while others, though living contemporaneously with it, were never reached by its missionaries--the idea gradually obtained that baptism was not essential to salvation. All this might have been obviated, and the Church spared much ridicule and skepticism, the result of its rambling inconsistencies, had it kept the key to the situation--Baptism for the Dead.

Gradual Growth of a Heresy.--The idea that baptism is non-essential did not become fixed and popular until many centuries after the Apostles "fell asleep." Saint Augustine, who figured in the latter part of the fourth and in the first half of the fifth century after Christ, and who advanced the notion that water baptism was "the outward sign of an inward grace," held, nevertheless, that no soul could be saved without it--not even infants; though their condemnation, resulting from non-baptism, would be of the mildest character. Augustine's concept of baptism, with some modifications, is the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church and of the orthodox Protestant churches at the present time. Luther held baptism to be essential to salvation; Calvin and Zwingli did not; and there, in the sixteenth century, it appears, began the schism of opinion concerning it that divides Christendom today.

Footnotes

1. John 3:3, 5.

2. Matt. 3:13.

3. John 5:19.

4. Mark 1:4; Acts 2:38.

5. 2 Nephi 9:21, 22.

6. John 1:29.

7. Moroni 8:8-10, 19, 22.

8. Moses 6:55.

9. D. & C. 68:25-27.

10. Mosiah 3:11; Moroni 8:22; D. & C. 45:54; Ib. 76:72.

11. I Cor. 15:29.

12. Moses 6:60.

13. 2 Kings 5:1-14.

14. James 5:14, 15.

15. Acts 2:29.

16. 1 Cor. 7:14.

17. Mark 10:14; Luke 18:16.

ARTICLE THIRTY-THREE.

Meaning And Mode Of Baptism.

The Lesser Suggests the Greater.--When Jesus told Nicodemus that man must be born of Water and of the Spirit, he virtually declared the meaning of baptism and prescribed the mode of its administration. It was to prepare the way before a greater principle, that Christ taught and exemplified the principle of baptism. He compared it to birth, the entry into mortal life; and this pointed to resurrection, the entry into immortal glory.

Men's minds, therefore, should be ready to receive something suggestive of birth and resurrection, in the ceremony authorized by the Son of God as the means of admission into his Kingdom. This suggestion is fully realized in the true form of the baptismal ordinance, namely, immersion--going down into the water and coming up out of the water, in the similitude of burial and resurrection, of birth into a higher life.

The Proper Form.--That immersion was the form of the ordinance introduced by John the Baptist, submitted to by the Savior, and perpetuated by his Apostles, is a plain and reasonable inference from the teachings of the New Testament. Jesus, when about to be baptized, must have gone down into the water; for after baptism, he "went up straightway out of the water." [1] When Philip baptized the Eunuch, "they went down both into the water." [2] John baptized "in Aenon, near to Salim, because there was much water there" [3]--another proof presumptive of immersion, the only mode requiring "much water" for its performance.

If this had not been the proper form, Paul would not have compared baptism to burial and resurrection; [4] nor would he have recognized as baptism the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. [5] Note also his words to the Corinthians relative to vicarious baptism and in support of resurrection, a doctrine that some of them denied: "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?" [6] In other words, why use the symbol of the resurrection, if there be no resurrection--if the symbol does not symbolize?

Additional Evidence.--In addition to what the Bible tells, we have the statements of archaeologists and historians, to the effect that baptism, in the first ages of Christianity, was a dipping or submersion in water. This, in fact, as philologists testify, is the meaning of the Greek word from which the English word "baptism" is derived. Ancient baptisteries and other monumental remains in Asia, Africa and Europe, show that immersion was the act of baptism. The Christian churches of the Orient--Greek, Russian, Armenian, Nestorian, Coptic and others, have always practiced immersion and allow nothing else for baptism. The Western churches preserved this form for thirteen centuries, and then gradually introduced pouring or sprinkling--ceremonies in no way symbolical of birth and resurrection, and therefore not in harmony with the divine purpose for which baptism was instituted.

Clinic Baptism.--Baptisms by pouring or sprinkling were exceptional in the early ages of the Christian Church. They were called clinic baptisms, because administered as a rule to the sick, who could not be taken from their beds to be immersed; but they were rare, and were regarded only as quasi-baptisms. [7]

Immersion Made Optional.--Baptism by immersion was practiced regularly in the Roman Catholic Church until the year 1311, when the Council of Ravenna authorized a change, leaving it optional with the officiating minister to baptize either by immersion or by sprinkling. Even infants were baptized by immersion until about the end of the thirteenth century when sprinkling came into common use.

Luther and Calvin.--Luther favored immersion and sought, against the tendency of the times, to restore it; but Calvin, while admitting that the word "baptism" means immersion, and that this was certainly the practice of the ancient Church, held that the mode was of no consequence. A Greater than Calvin, however, had decreed otherwise, and had set the example that all were to follow.

Modern Methods.--Pouring is the present practice in the Roman Catholic Church; sprinkling in the Church of England and in the Methodist Church. A choice of modes is permitted by the Presbyterians, though sprinkling is the regular form. The Baptists as their name implies, are strong advocates of immersion. The Quakers repudiate baptism altogether.

The Authorized Practice.--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has but one form of baptism--the one authorized by the Savior and practiced by his Apostles, namely, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. [8] The Church derives its knowledge of this sacred ordinance, not mainly from the Bible, nor from the Book of Mormon, nor from any other record. It came by direct revelation to Joseph the Seer, restoring that which was lost. Brushing aside the dust and cobwebs of tradition concealing the precious jewel of truth, he brought back the knowledge of the "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" of the ancients. [9]

Baptism and Resurrection.--Baptism was made universal, and became the doorway to the Church of Christ, the Kingdom of God on earth, because it represents resurrection, which is likewise universal and without which no man can enter into the Celestial Kingdom. Christ, the great Exemplar of baptism, was the first to rise from the dead. It was fitting, therefore, that he should undergo the ordinance symbolizing the mighty fact for which he stands--redemption from the grave and eternal life beyond.

Symbolical of the Soul.--Baptism is twofold, corresponding to its subject, the soul, which is both spiritual and temporal. The body is represented by the water; the spirit by the Holy Ghost. Both are essential in the process, since it is not the body alone, nor the spirit alone, that is baptized, but body and spirit in one. Consequently, baptism is administered in a temporal world, where body and spirit can both be present, and where the watery element abounds. A person can believe and repent in the spirit world, but cannot be baptized there. This makes necessary baptism by proxy.

The Blood that Cleanseth.--In reality there are three factors in baptism--the Spirit, the Water and the Blood. Only two of them are used in the ceremony. But without the atoning blood of Christ, there could be no baptism of a saving character. Hence it is written: "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin." [10]

Three in One.--The Water and the Spirit, representing earth and heaven, are made effectual by the Blood. Man and God are thus reconciled, Christ being the reconciler. There are three that bear record in heaven--the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and there are three that bear witness on earth--the Spirit, the Water and the Blood. Each group corresponds to the other; each three agree in one. Therefore, when a soul is baptized, it must be by Water and by Spirit, made effectual by Blood, and in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

A Divine Exegesis--The Lord explained this principle to Adam thus: "Inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water and blood and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the Kingdom of Heaven, of water and of the spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory:

"For by the Water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified, and by the Blood ye are sanctified." [11]

The Mediator.--Spirit, Water and Blood--the three elements of baptism--were combined in the person of Jesus Christ, when baptized by John in the Jordan. Standing upon the river's brink, his sacred from dripping with the waters from which he had just emerged, he was crowned with the Holy Ghost, descending upon him from above. Yet it was necessary that his blood should be shed, in order that the Spirit might come in full force unto his disciples. Not until the Mediator had hung between heaven and earth, were the Apostles endued with power from on High. Then it was that the Spirit of God moved with full effect upon the waters of this world, coming, as in the first instance, that there might be a creation, a new birth, a regeneration for the human race.

Immersion in the Spirit.--So much stress being laid upon immersion, and upon the twofold character of baptism, one may be led to inquire: Why is it not an immersion in the Spirit as well as in the Water? To which I answer: Is it not so? When John the Baptist, proclaiming the Christ, said, "I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost," [12] it was baptism in each instance, and baptism signifies immersion. [13]

The Laying on of Hands.--The Holy Ghost is imparted by the laying on of hands. [14] Possibly this ceremony was intended to typify the glorious baptism that Earth will undergo when the Spirit is poured out upon her from on High. The laying on of hands for the giving of the Holy Ghost was an ordinance in the Christian Church for centuries. Cyprian mentions it in the third century; Augustine in the fourth. Gradually, however, it began to be neglected, until finally some of the sects discarded it, while others, retaining the form, "denied the power thereof."

The Fathers Understood.--The Greek fathers of the Church held correct ideas concerning baptism. They termed it "initiation," from its introductory character; "regeneration," from its being regarded as a new birth; "the great circumcision," because it was held to have superseded the circumcision of the Mosaic law; also "illumination" and "the gift of the Lord." [15]

Censured for Truth's Sake.--The Greek Christians of the early centuries, like the Saints of New Testament times, baptized for the remission of sins. They have been censured by modern critics for magnifying the importance of water baptism, and at the same time insisting on the purely ethical or spiritual nature of the rite; for confounding the sign with the thing signified, the action of the water with the action of the Spirit, in the process of regeneration. But they were not any more insistent upon these points than the Apostles themselves.

Augustine's Theory.--St. Augustine is complimented by the same critics for formulating the first strict scientific theory of the nature and effects of baptism. He drew a sharp distinction between "the outward sign"--water baptism--and the inward change of heart resulting from the operation of the Holy Ghost. Yet even he is charged with laying too much stress upon the value of "the outward sign," which he held to be essential to salvation. Protestant theologians have been commended for keeping the "sign" in due subordination to "the thing signified," for justifying themselves by faith, and ignoring to a great extent outward ordinances.

But the Greek Christians, whatever their defects, were nearer right than St. Augustine, and St. Augustine was nearer right than the Protestant theologians who followed him. Baptism, as taught in the New Testament, is not the mere "outward sign of an inward grace." The action of the water and the action of the Spirit are not to be separated in any analysis of the nature and effects of baptism. Both are essential in the soul-cleansing, soul-enlightening process.

A Symbol of Creation.--Every baptism, every resurrection, implies a birth. No seed germinates until it dies, or appears to die, and is buried. The gardener plants that there may be a springing forth of new life from the germ of the old. [16] Coming into this world involves departure out of a previous world, and burial here implies birth hereafter. The sun sets upon the Eastern hemisphere to rise upon the Western, and sets upon the Western to rise upon the Eastern. The setting and rising of the sun; sleep followed by waking; winter with its icy fetters and snowy shroud, succeeded by spring in garments of green, with bright flowers, singing birds and laughing streams; all these suggest baptism, for they symbolize birth, burial and resurrection.

Begotten and Born of God.--We have a Father and a Mother in heaven, in whose image we were created, male and female. We were begotten and born in the spirit before we were begotten and born in the flesh; and we must be begotten and born again, in the similitude of those earlier begettings and births, or we cannot regain the presence of our eternal Father and Mother.

Babes in Christ.--Baptism signifies the creation of souls for the Kingdom of God. The one who baptizes is the spiritual progenitor of the one baptized. This is why the Apostles referred to those who received baptism at their hands as "children of my begetting," "babes in Christ," to be fed "the milk" before "the meat of the word." [17] To baptize is to perform spiritually the functions of fatherhood. Motherhood is symbolized by the baptismal font. Hence, baptism must be by divine authority, must have God's sanction upon it. Heavenly and earthly powers must join, must be wedded for the bringing forth of the redeemed soul; otherwise, the baptism will be unlawful, the birth illegitimate, the act of begetting a sin. Baptisms, like marriages, performed without divine authority, will have no effect "when men are dead."

Suggestive Symbolism.--The significance of baptism and the very form of the ceremony are suggested by the career of that Divine Being whose descent from heaven to earth, and whose ascent from earth to heaven, are the sum and substance of the Gospel Story. Descending below and rising above--such was his experience from the time he left his celestial throne to the time he returned to his glorious exaltation. It is not possible that the sacred ordinance of baptism was intended to symbolize that wonderful event--God's merciful condescension for the sake of fallen man? Was it not instituted in anticipation and as a memorial of that mighty Birth, with its mortal burial and its immortal resurrection?

A Watery World.--Moreover, in the symbolism of the Scriptures, this world is represented by water. [18] "All things are water," said the Greek Thales. At the very dawn of creation, Spirit and Water, the two elements used in baptism, were both present--the one creative, the other createable. [19] "Let the dry land appear!" The very words suggest baptism, birth, creation--the emergence of an infant planet from the womb of the waters. And when the Almighty was about to send the Flood, he said to Noah, concerning the wicked: "Behold, I will destroy them with the earth." [20] Did he mean the watery element which enters so largely into the composition of the earth?

A Double Doorway.--Water represents the temporal part of creation, including the body or mortal part of man. Baptism therefore, in its twofold character, suggests the passing out from this watery world into the spirit world, and thence by resurrection into eternal glory. It is only a suggestion, but it emphasizes for me the reason why the doorway to the Church and Kingdom of God is a double doorway, a dual birth, a baptism of Water and of the Spirit.

Footnotes

1. Matt. 3:16.

2. Acts 8:38.

3. John 3:23.

4. Rom. 6:3-5; Col. 2:12.

5. 1 Cor. 10:1, 2.

6. Ib. 15:29.

7. The first recorded case of clinic baptism is mentioned by Eusebius as having occurred in the third century.

8. 3 Nephi 11:23-29.

9. Eph. 4:5.

10. 1 John 1:7.

11. Moses 6:59, 60.

12. Mark 1:8.

13. President Lorenzo Snow, in describing the effect of the Spirit upon himself, after his baptism in water, says: "It was a complete baptism--a tangible immersion in the heavenly principle or element, the Holy Ghost."--Improvement Era, June, 1919, p. 654.

14. Acts 8:17.

15. Other synonyms were "consecration" and "consummation." Those baptized were understood to have consecrated their lives to God, and to have consummated or completed their preparation for communion with the Church of Christ. Only to such was the sacrament of the Lord's Supper administered.

16. 1 Cor. 15:35-44.

17. 1 Cor. 3:1,2; Heb. 5:13, 14.

18. Dan. 7; Rev. 13, 17.

19. Gen. 1:2.

20. Ib. 6:13.

ARTICLE THIRTY-FOUR.

The Gospel's Accessories.

Many Ways to the Heart.--There is only one way into the Kingdom of Heaven, but there are many ways into the human heart; and the Church of Christ, in its mission of promulgating truth and turning souls to righteousness, has legitimate use for every avenue to that heart. Poetry, music, art in general, as well as science and philosophy--all these can be utilized as auxiliaries in the carrying on of the Lord's manifold work. They may not be essential parts of the divine message, but they prepare the way for its acceptance and are the forerunners of greater things. This, to my thinking, is the main reason why they are in the world. There is something purifying, ennobling, exalting, in all true poetry, true music, real science and genuine philosophy.

The Poet's Mission.--"The poets of the world," says the poetic Dr. Holland, "are the prophets of humanity. They forever reach after and foresee the ultimate good. They are evermore building the paradise that is to be, painting the millennium that is to come, restoring the lost image of God in the human soul. When the world shall reach the poet's ideal, it will arrive at perfection; and much good will it do the world to measure itself by this ideal and struggle to lift the real to its lofty level." [1]

In the light of such a noble utterance, how paltry the ordinary concept of the poet as a mere verse-builder. His true mission is to exalt the ideal, and encourage the listless or struggling real to advance toward it and eventually attain perfection.

Dreamers and Builders.--In this age of money-worship, the poet is often referred to, and at times even ridiculed, as a "dreamer." But the ridicule, when applied to a real poet, a true son or daughter of the Muses, is pointless. The poet _is_ a dreamer; but so is the architect and the projector of railroads. All creative minds are dreamful, imaginative, poetic. Were it otherwise, nothing worth while would be created. If there were no dreamers, there would be no builders. Both are necessary to progress. Every art and every science has its share of poetic idealism, of poetic enthusiasm, and must have it, in order to achieve best results.

Well worthy of a place beside Doctor Holland's beautiful thought on poets and their ideals, is the following sentiment on dreamers, from the pen of the popular essayist, James Allen: "As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the _realities_ which it shall one day see and know. Composer, sculptor, painter, poet, prophet, sage, these are the makers of the after-world, the architects of heaven. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, laboring humanity would perish." [2]

Poets and Prophets.--Poets are prophets of a lesser degree; and the prophets are the mightiest of the poets. They hold the key to the symbolism of the universe, and they alone are qualified to interpret it.

Prophets, mightiest of the poets,
They to whom the Gods tell secrets,
Doing naught till true revealings
Have made wise their trusted servants,
Who in turn make wise the people;
Bringing past and future present
For the betterment of all men,
Earth for every change preparing
On her pilgrimage to glory. [3]

Rhymes and Rhymesters.--There are rhymesters who are neither poets nor prophets; and there are prophets and poets who never build a verse nor make a rhyme. Rhyme is no essential element of poetry. Versification is an art used by the poet to make his thought more attractive. The rhyme pleases the ear and helps the sentiment to reach the heart--a ticket of admission, as it were. A musical instrument is painted and gilded, not to improve its melodic or harmonic powers, but to make it beautiful to the eye, while its music appeals to the ear and charms the soul. Rhyme sustains about the same relation to poetry, as paint or gold leaf to the piano or organ. Clothing adds nothing to one's stature, to one's mental or moral worth; but it enables one to appear well in society. "The apparel" may "proclaim," but it does not _make_ "the man." Neither does rhyme make poetry.

The Essence of Poetry.--The essence of poetry is its idealism, its symbolism. The Creator has built his universe upon symbols, the lesser suggesting and leading up to the greater; and the poetic faculty--possessed in fulness by the prophet--recognizes and interprets them. "All things have their likeness.' [4] All creations testify of their creator. They point to something above and beyond themselves. That is why poetry of the highest order is always prophetic or infinitely suggestive; and that is why the poet is a prophet, and why there is such a thing as poetic prose.

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." [5]

That is poetry, real poetry, full of rhythm, yet having no rhyme.

Above and Beyond.--Anything is poetic that suggests something greater than itself. The lilies of the field suggested to the Savior's poetic mind the glory of Solomon. He used them as a means of instilling into the minds of his doubting disciples the great lesson of trust in Providence.

Man, fashioned in the divine image, suggests God, and is therefore "a symbol of God," as Carlyle affirms. [6] But Joseph Smith said it first and more fully. He declared God to be "An Exalted Man." To narrow minds, this is blasphemy. To the broad-minded, it is poetry--poetry of the sublimest type.

Poetic Ordinances.--The bread and water used in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, represent something greater than those emblems--something above and beyond. The whole sacred ceremony is a poem in word and action.

The same is true of Baptism, which stands for birth, creation, burial and resurrection. Fatherhood and motherhood are both symbolized in the baptismal ordinance, the true form of which is immersion. Any deviation from that mode destroys its poetic suggestiveness, its symbolism.

The Greatest Poet and Prophet.--Jesus Christ, the greatest of all prophets, was likewise the greatest of all poets. He comprehended the universe and its symbolism as no one else ever did or could. He knew it through and through. What wonder? Had he not created it, and was it not made to bear record of him? [7] He taught in poetic parables, taking simple things as types of greater things, and teaching lessons that lead the mind upward towards the ideal, towards perfection. The Gospel of Christ is replete with poetry. It is one vast poem from beginning to end.

What of Philosophy--"Philosophy is the account which the human mind gives to itself of the constitution of the world." So says that great modern philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson. [8] In Article Eleven I have pointed out the similarity between Plato's concept of causes that produced the universe, and Joseph Smith's teaching upon the origin and purpose of the great plan of eternal progression. But Joseph did not get his philosophy from Plato. He had it directly from the divine Source of Plato's inspiration. There is no plagiarism in this semi-paralleling of a sublime thought. In like manner Confucius taught, in a negative way, the Golden Rule, afterwards taught affirmatively and more fully by Jesus of Nazareth. Truth, whether uttered by ancient sage or by modern seer, is worthy of all acceptance.

Emerson on "Compensation."--Few things of a philosophic nature appeal to me more strongly than Emerson's great essay on "Compensation." Says that master of thought and expression: "Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess. Every sweet hath its sour, every evil its good. Every faculty which is a receiver of pleasure, has an equal penalty put on its abuse. It is to answer for its moderation with its life."

"Nature hates monopolies and exceptions. The waves of the sea do not more speedily seek a level from their loftiest tossing, than the varieties of conditions tend to equalize themselves. There is always some leveling circumstance that puts down the overbearing, the strong, the rich, the fortunate, substantially on the same ground with all others."

"The farmer imagines power and place are fine things. But the President has paid dear for his White House."

"The cheat, the defaulter, the gambler, cannot extort the benefit, cannot extort the knowledge of material and moral nature which his honest care and pains yield to the operative. The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the power; but they why do not the thing have not the power."

"As the royal armies sent against Napoleon, when he approached, cast down their colors and from enemies became friends, so do disasters of all kinds, as sickness, offense, poverty, prove benefactors."

"Our strength grows out of our weakness. Not until we are pricked and stung and sorely shot at, awakens the indignation which arms itself with secret forces. Blame is safter than praise."

"The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand. The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode; every burned book or house enlightens the world. It is the whipper who is whipped, and the tyrant who is undone."

"The changes which break up at short intervals the prosperity of men, are advertisements of a nature whose law is growth. We cannot part with our friends. We cannot part our friends. We cannot let our angels go. We do not see that they only go out, that archangels may come in."

"The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character." And the man or woman who would have remained a sunny garden flower, with no room for its roots and too much sunshine for its head, by the falling of the walls and the neglect of the gardener, is made the banian of the forest yielding shade and fruit to wide neighborhoods of men." [9]

Divers Teachers.--Philosophy, like poetry, wins its way, where Truth's fulness, preached in power, might offend. The plain blunt message of the prophet who comes proclaiming, "Thus saith the Lord," repels and antagonizes many who will listen to and be impressed by the philosopher, with his cogent reasoning; or charmed by the poet, with his melodious verse and appealing illustrations; or won over by the scientist, with his clear-cut, convincing demonstrations. All kinds of teachers go before the prophet, preparing his way, or follow after him, confirming his testimony. [10]

The Divine Art.--Music softens the heart, thus preparing the way before the Gospel. "The song of the righteous is a prayer unto me," saith the Lord. [11] Nothing brings the good spirit into a meeting more quickly than sweet and soulful singing, especially when choir and congregation join. Tourists come in a constant stream to listen to the organ and the choir in our great Tabernacle. The Gospel is not always preached to them; they do not always desire it. But they are mellowed by the music, and go away with kinder feelings toward, and a better understanding of, the people who build such instruments, organize such choirs, and rear such structures. Their works speak for them. Depraved wretches, such as the majority of Utah's people are falsely represented to be, do not love music, care nothing for poetry and philosophy, do not cultivate the arts and sciences, nor rear tabernacles and temples unto God.

Seeing and Hearing.--In the year 1875 President Ulysses S. Grant came to Utah--the first Executive of the Nation to set foot within the Territory, now a State. It was at a time when, all over this broad land, bitter prejudice against the Latter-day Saints prevailed. It was freely asserted that the man who had finished with the South, would "make short work" of Utah and the "Mormons." Among the places visited by the President and his party during their stay, was the Salt Lake Tabernacle, where he heard the organ played by Joseph J. Daynes. What the President thought of it, I never learned; but Mrs. Grant, her face streaming with tears, turned to Captain Hooper, who had been Utah's delegate in Congress, and said with deep feeling: "I wish I could do something for these good Mormon people." The music had touched her heart, and perhaps the heart of her noble husband; for Grant was noble, though yielding at times to intense prejudice. [12]

No Substitute for the Gospel.--Let it not be supposed, however, that music, poetry, painting, sculpture, science, or any other thing, can take the place of the great uplifting Plan whereby the world, already redeemed, is yet to be glorified. No gift can vie with the Giver, no creature usurp the functions of the Creator. He will use everything true and good and beautiful to melt the hearts of men and prepare them to be saved; but salvation itself comes only by one route--the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the great Ideal, and it must be honored and maintained as such. In dealing with it, no Procrustean process is permissible. It must not be chopped off because men think it too long, nor stretched out because they deem it too short. It did not come into the world to be mutilated. Revelation cannot bow down to tradition. Truth is the standard--truth as Heaven reveals it--and the opinions and theories of men must give way. The Gospel's accessories are no substitute for the Gospel.

Footnotes

1. Lessons in Life, by Timothy Titcomb (J. G. Holland)--Lesson 22, "The Poetic Test."

2. As a Man Thinketh, "Visions and Ideals."

3. "Love and the Light," p. 68.

4. Moses 6:63.

5. Matt. 6:28, 29; Luke 12:27.

6. Sartor Resartus, 3, "Symbols."

7. Moses 6:63.

8. Representative Men, Plato, p. 51.

9. Emerson's Essays, 3, "Compensation."

10. A friend of mine, a medical practitioner, was conversing with a learned physician in the great city of London. The subject was the Word of Wisdom (D. & C. 89) wherein the Lord, after deprecating the use of strong drink, tobacco and other things "not good for man," goes on to say that "all wholesome herbs," "every fruit in the season thereof," and all grains are ordained for man's use. "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," etc. The learned man asked: "Where did Joseph Smith get this information? These teachings are based upon scientific principles, recognized as such by the medical profession; but they are of comparatively recent discovery. They were not known in Joseph Smith's time." My friend, being a Latter-day Saint, did not lose the opportunity thus afforded of bearing testimony to Joseph Smith's mission as a prophet.

11. D. & C. 25:12.

12. Before reaching the Tabernacle, President Grant passed up South Temple Street, lined on both sides with sabbath school children, neatly and tastefully attired, waving banners and mottoes of welcome in honor of the nation's chief. Riding in an open carriage, and running the gauntlet of applause and cheers, the honored guest turned to the Governor of Utah, Hon. George W. Emery, who sat beside him, and inquired: "What children are these?" "Mormon children," replied the Governor. "The Silent Man" mused for a moment, and was then heard to murmur, "I have been deceived."

He never was deceived again--in the same way. He could trust his eyes when he looked upon those beautiful children. They were not the product of crime and depravity, not the offspring of savages and criminals. He could trust his ears, too, when he heard that choir and that organ. No one could make him believe, after his visit to the "Mormon City," that its inhabitants were as black as they had been painted.

ARTICLE THIRTY-FIVE.

What Are Miracles?

Not Contrary to Law.--Miracles are results flowing from superior means and methods of doing things. They do not happen contrary to law. They are in strict conformity therewith. It could not be otherwise; for the universe, natural and supernatural, is governed by law. But there are greater laws and lesser laws, and the greater have power to suspend the operation of the lesser. When this occurs, people exclaim: "A miracle!" Others say: "It never happened, for it is contrary to law." And indeed it may seem contrary to ordinary law, with the workings of which their everyday experience is familiar. But that does not prove it contrary to some higher law concerning which they may know little or nothing.

Elisha and the Axe.--When the Prophet Elisha relieved the distress of the young man who had lost an axe--a borrowed axe--in the stream on the bank of which he was hewing timber, [1] it may have been supposed, by some skeptical on-looker, that the man of God was working in opposition to law. The account given states that "he cut down a stick" and cast it into the water, and "the iron did swim"--in spite of the fact that it is the nature of iron to sink. The law of gravitation required that the axe remain at the bottom of the stream, unless, by the application of some counter-force, ordinary or otherwise, it could be recovered. The force applied in this case was extraordinary. Elisha invoked a law superior to the law of gravitation, suspending its complete action upon that particular piece of iron. [2]

Scientific Achievements.--Today, iron ships are floating upon every sea. While this is not a miracle such as Elisha wrought, it would have been deemed a miracle in earlier ages of the world, before such wonders became commonplace. The achievements of modern science, compared with past conditions in the same field of thought and action, ought to convince any reasonable mind that the days of miracles are not over.

Light Production.--Men once made light by briskly rubbing together two pieces of wood, until friction generated flame. Gas light or electric light, with the present means of producing them, would have filled the souls of such men with fear and wonder. To them it would have been a miracle. And yet, to press a button or turn a switch, and thus obtain light, is a very clumsy device--or will be so considered when men learn to make light as God made it on the morning of creation. [3]

"The Earth Moves."--The telegraph, the telephone, the electric car, the automobile, the airship--these and a hundred other marvelous manifestations of scientific power, now quite common, would have been deemed visionary and impossible in former ages. To have avowed even a belief in them would have imperiled one's life or deprived him of his liberty, in the days when Galileo was threatened with torture for declaring that the earth moves, or when women, in later times were hanged or burned as witches for nothing at all. So dangerous is human prejudice, in its fanatical opposition to things new and strange. This, of course, refers only to former ages and to semibenighted peoples. We would not have done as our forefathers did! So each generation thinks. Let us be thankful that the earth "does move," and that the mind of man moves with it, so that perils such as confronted Galileo and others of his class are now less likely to show their ugly features.

The Other Extreme.--But just a word of caution here. We must not rush to the opposite extreme, and become obsessed with that ultra-practical spirit which would make all things commonplace, not only in manifestation, but in origin. Miracles, after all, are facts, not fictions, and some of them have their causes far back of and beyond the known principles of science.

Disbelief in Divine Interposition.--But there is a disposition in these modern days to do away with everything savoring of the supernatural, "Higher Criticism," so-called, seems to regard this as its special mission. Some people, even if they give credence to works of wonder, invariably refer them to ordinary causes--anything rather than acknowledge divine interposition.

Moses and the Red Sea.--For instance, when they read of Moses parting the waters of the Red Sea, they either deny the event in toto, or set Moses and the miracle aside, and substitute some convulsion of nature as the accidental cause of the mighty deliverance, when those waters, after allowing the Israelites to pass through in safety, returned just in time to engulf their pursuing enemies, the Egyptians. [4]

A very convenient earthquake, truly! Nothing could have been more timely! But why could not Divine Power have done it all--done it designedly, in the manner and with the means specified in the sacred narrative? [5] Is God impotent in the presence of Nature--fettered by his own creation? Alas! these learned theorists believe not in God, and that is why they deny his works and put nature with its blind forces in his stead.

Joshua and the Sun.--They laugh to scorn the idea of Joshua commanding the sun to stand still, deeming it "a sin and a disgrace" that such things should be preached and taught, and denying, of course, that the miracle ever took place. Because, forsooth, the whole solar system would have come crashing down into chaos, had the sun halted for one moment in its decreed course! Yes, that might have happened, such a calamity might have occurred--had there been no God to uphold the solar system and administer the law for its preservation.

"The Lord Fought for Israel."--But there is a God, and he was there as he is everywhere, by his all-protective, all-administrative power--the God to whom Joshua prayed before uttering the sublime command: "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon!" [6] "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies; . . . . for the Lord fought for Israel." [7]

There you have it--it was the Lord's doing. Joshua was merely the instrument, just as Moses had been. But because such things are not happening every day, and because doubt cannot do them, therefore are they impossible to Faith! Such is the logic of those who scoff at the power of Deity and deny even the miracles of the Savior.

Nothing Too Difficult for Omnipotence.--For my part, I see nothing inconsistent in these Bible stories--nothing to justify doubt or denial. A Power that could create the sun and moon and set them whirling in their orbits, could stop them in their decreed course--or stop the earth, so that sun and moon would seem to be stayed--and at the same time uphold the universe, while this part of it remained stationary. Of course, man could not do it; but human power is not the measure of Omnipotence.

What Our Century Needs.--What the Twentieth Century needs, more than anything else, is an honest belief that there is actually a God in heaven, and that his power is superior to man's. The Great Creator has not let out his universe, to be governed by law independently of the Law-giver. The God of Israel is a God who answers prayer, and who works miracles whenever the need arises and conditions warrant--works them according to law. But He administers that law--it does not administer him.

Greater and Lesser Laws.--Some laws are fundamental. The Almighty did not create them; but he controls them and overrules their workings for the welfare of his creatures. According to Joseph Smith, certain laws were "instituted" at the beginning, as a means for human progression. These are eternal principles whereby our great and benevolent Father proposes to save and exalt his children, and give perpetuity to all things necessary for their happiness and glory.

Who, having faith in a Maker of the universe, can question his power to govern that universe, the workmanship of his hands? And if he controls the fundamental laws--those uncreatable, self-existent principles which are as the Constitution of Eternity, surely he can suspend the operation of lesser laws based thereon, setting aside at will his own enactments.

An Illustration.--Suppose a child to be lying at the point of death. The family physician, having done his best and failed, informs the sad-hearted parents that their little one cannot live till morning. Medical science so decrees, in accordance with the law under which the physician has been operating. But, bearing in mind the apostolic injunction, "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the Elders of the Church," [8] the parents send for the Elders. They come and pray over the child, and the prayer of faith "saves the sick," notwithstanding the good doctor's prognostication. A miracle? Yes, if one chooses to call it so. In other words, the suspension of a lesser law by a greater, the former requiring the death of the child, the latter permitting it to live; the lower inoperative in the presence of the higher.

Biggest Things Yet to Be.--Miracles belong to no particular time or place. Whenever and wherever there is sufficient faith and a reasonable demand for its exercise, Divine Power will act, and marvels will result. "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of" in human "philosophy," and the biggest things are yet to be. God's work is progressive, and the miracles of the future will cause the miracles of the past to pale.

Divine Adaptation.--Progression's highest methods cannot be employed in dealing with undeveloped man. The All-wise adapts himself to the conditions environing those whom he aims to uplift and glorify. "All things are in a scale," rendering necessary a diversity of laws and operations. Even the divine dictum, "Let there be light!" does not represent the last word in light production. God is Light, and has only to appear, and all darkness will flee away. When the sun rises, the moon and stars must "hide their diminished heads." When God dawns upon the world, not even the sun will shine.

Footnotes

1. 2 Kings 6:1-7.

2. "What are the Laws of Nature?" asks Carlyle, and continues: "To me perhaps the rising of one from the dead were no violation of these laws, but a confirmation, if some far deeper law, now first penetrated into, and by spiritual force, even as the rest have all been, were brought to bear on us with its material force."

"'But is it not the deepest law of Nature that she be constant?' cried an illuminated class: 'Is not the machine of the universe fixt to move by unalterable rules?' Probable enough good friends. . . . . And now of you, too, I make the old inquiry: What those same unalterable rules, forming the complete statute book of Nature, may possibly be?

"'They stand written in our works of science,' say you; 'in the accumulated record of man's experience.' Was man with his experience present at the creation, then, to see how it all went on? Have any deepest scientific individuals yet dived down to the foundations of the universe, and gauged everything there? Did the Maker take them into his counsel, that they read his ground-plan of the incomprehensible All, and can say, This stands marked therein, and no more than this? Alas, not in any wise!" . . . .

"To the minnow, every cranny and pebble and quality and accident, of its little native creek may have become familiar; but does the minnow understand the ocean tides and periodic currents, the trade winds and monsoons and moon's eclipses, by all which the condition of its little creek is regulated, and may, from time to time (unmiraculously enough) be quite upset and reversed? Such a minnow is man; his creek this planet earth; his ocean the immeasurable All; his monsoons and periodic currents the mysterious force of Providence through aeons of aeons."--Sartor Resartus, Natural Supernaturalism, pp. 275-278.

3. Gen. 1:3.

4. "Everybody recalls how the Red Sea was rolled aside in order that the Isaraelites under Moses might pass over safely; how the river Jordan, a few later, was driven back, that Joshua and his army might cross; and how Sodom and Gomorrah were overwhelmed with fire and brimstone for their sins . . . . Geologists are now inclined to believe that the recession of the sea might have been caused by an earthquake pushing up a rock stratum under tremendous pressure. The water would return in some degree upon the subsidence of the stratum. The various miraculous events referred to occurred about the year 1500 B. C., and there is a curious similarity between them. It now appears probable from scientific research that these occurrences were the last of a series of terrific earthquake disturbances that changed the entire surface of the globe."--W. H. Ballou, D. Sc.

5. Ex. 14:21-31.

6. Joshua 10:12.

7. Ib. vv. 13, 14.

8. James 5:14.

ARTICLE THIRTY-SIX.

The Mainspring of Power.

The Moving Cause.--All power springs from faith. It is "the moving cause of all action" and "the foundation of all righteousness." [1] God did not create the principle of faith, but by means of it he created the worlds, and by means of it he continues to exercise control and dominion over them. It is the faith of Omnipotence that upholds the universe.

A Negative Opinion.--A Christian minister, not of the orthodox school, with whom I was conversing on the subject of faith, tried to convince me that it was anything but an admirable quality. He even called it contemptible, declaring that it consisted of a weak willingness to believe--to believe anything, however improbable or absurd. In short, it was mere credulity, nothing more.

A Spiritual Force.--When I referred to faith as a spiritual force, a principle of power, he said I was attaching to the term a significance that it had never borne, and for which there was no warrant. I then reminded him of the Savior's words: "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, 'Remove hence to yonder place,' and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you." [2] Whereupon he flippantly remarked: "Oh, it takes picks and shovels to move mountains."

Picks and Shovels.--And so it does--if one has no better way of moving them. But what about the faith necessary to handle pick and shovel? All energy springs from faith, and whether mountains are moved by man or by his Maker, it is faith that precedes the action and renders it possible. Yet here was a professed minister of Christ, ignoring the teachings of Christ, and denying what all true Christians believe--that the smallest as well as the greatest acts of our lives spring from the exercise of faith.