MAN IS THAT HE MAY HAVE JOY.
Is the increasing power of man a sufficient reward for the effort and
struggle that must accompany progression? This is a question that
comes to every student of the Gospel. Power in itself may not be the
ideal end of existence. It becomes necessary, therefore, to determine
if there is associated with power, gifts that make worth while the
eternal searching out of knowledge in order that greater power may be
won.
**Consciousness and the Universe.** Intelligent spirits have
possessed, from the beginning, a consciousness of the world in which
they found themselves. They must have been susceptible, from the
first, of feeling pleasure and pain, and must have had equivalents of
our senses, which, possibly, were keener than those we now possess.
When they were placed in opposition to any law of nature, pain or its
equivalent undoubtedly resulted exactly as today. When they moved
along with law, joy must have been sensed, as today. Intelligent
beings can not rejoice in pain, therefore, from the beginning, to
avoid pain and to secure joy, they have searched out and obeyed law.
The more advanced the intelligence, the greater the number of laws
that are understood to which adaptation may be made, and therefore the
greater the possibility of joy. The search for increasing power,
carried on by all normal beings is then really a search for a greater
and more abiding joy. There is no Godliness in pain, except as it is
an incident in securing more knowledge. True freedom, which is full
joy, is the complete recognition of law and adaptation to it. Bondage
comes from ignorance of law or opposition to it.
**The Primeval Condition.** Man's approach to a fullness of joy is
pictured in his revealed history. Through the veil of forgetting we
see but dimly our pre-existent condition. The Gospel student does not
really concern himself, greatly, with the details of the life before
this one; so much needs to be done in this life that he is content
with the great outlines of pre-existent life, which may assist him to
understand the eternal journey of intelligence. Of the primeval
condition of man little is known. He found about him many forces,
operating in diverse ways, and to control them, and thus to sense joy,
he began to study them. The story of that early day of striving for
the greatest goal has not been told to mortal man.
**The First Estate.** Matter exists, perhaps, in many forms, but may
be classified, as the ponderable matter of earth, known directly
through the senses, and, as the imponderable matter which cannot be
sensed directly by man. This second class, often called spirit matter,
is perhaps most important, for it is not unlikely that from it are
derived all other forms of matter.
It was of first importance that the intelligent beings aiming at the
conquest of the universe, should learn to understand, thoroughly, the
properties of universal matter, in all of its forms. As nearly as can
be learned, the efforts of man were first devoted to education in the
properties of spirit matter. We were begotten spirits by God, who thus
became our Father, and we are his sons and daughters. Our career in
the spirit world is often spoken of as man's first estate.
How long man remained in the first estate, is not known. Undoubtedly,
however, it was long enough to enable him to become thoroughly
familiar with the manifestations of all forms of spirit substance.
Only when education in this division of the universe was completed
were we permitted to enter the next estate.
**The Second Estate.** The kind of matter characteristic of this
earth and the so-called material universe, also forms an important
part of the universe. No spirit can acquire real mastery over the
universe until this form of matter is so thoroughly understood as to
be used and governed. The next step in the education of these
intelligent beings was therefore to teach them familiarity with gross
matter. Consequently, the spirits passed out of the spirit world, and
were born into the world of earthly things, the world we now occupy,
as men and women clothed upon by a body consisting of gross matter, so
that intimate familiarity with the nature and possibilities of gross
matter might be acquired. This is called the second estate of man.
The business of man is to become so thoroughly acquainted with earth
conditions, that through the possession of an earthly body, he may go
on, forever.
**The Third Estate.** We pass out of this, but reappear in another
world, for a brief time separated from our earth-won body, but finally
possessing bodies of both kinds of universal matter. In this estate,
both the spirit matter and the grosser matter composing our final
bodies are represented by their essences, and therefore permit perfect
freedom and ease of movement and thought. These celestial bodies, as
they are called, connect the intelligence with all parts of the
universe, and become mighty helps in the endless search for truth.
This is the third estate of man.
Such then are the three estates, and as far as known, all the estates
of man.
Whether the outline, as here presented, in its details, is precise or
not, matters little. The essential thing is that man has to undergo
experience upon experience, to attain the desired mastery of the
external universe; and that we, of this earth, are passing through an
estate designed wholly for our further education.
**Everlasting Joy.** It follows that, in each estate, with each
onward step, a profounder knowledge of the laws of nature is attained.
When conscious, active wills are thus at work, the new knowledge makes
possible a more perfect adaptation of man to law. The more completely
law is obeyed the greater the consciousness of perfect joy. Throughout
eternal life, increasing knowledge is attained, and with increasing
knowledge comes the greater adaptation to law, and in the end an
increasingly greater joy. Therefore it is that eternal life is the
greatest gift of God, and that the plan of salvation is priceless.