SIXTY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON “PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OF
SALVATION.”—CHAPTERS 1 TO 14, INCLUSIVE.
By A. M. MARTIN, GENERAL SECRETARY C. L. S. C.
1. Q. What is the first fact developed in the experience of the
human family to be considered as a preparation for the investigation
which the author makes? A. There is in the nature of man, or in the
circumstances in which he is conditioned, something which leads him to
recognize and worship a superior being.
2. Q. To what extent is this characteristic true of man? A. It is true
of him in whatever part of the world he may be found, and in whatever
condition; and it has been true of him in all ages of which we have any
record, either fabulous or authentic.
3. Q. What is the second fact connected with the first one stated? A.
Man, by worshiping, becomes assimilated to the moral character of the
object which he worships.
4. Q. What history bears testimony to this fact? A. The whole history
of the idolatrous world.
5. Q. Leaving the God of the Bible out of view, what has been the
character of the objects man has worshiped? A. Those objects have
always had a defective and unholy character.
6. Q. What third fact is stated in connection with the other two
already given? A. There were no means within the reach of human power
or wisdom by which man could extricate himself from the evil of
idolatry, either by an immediate, or by a progressive series of efforts.
7. Q. How is this fact maintained? A. From the history of idolatry, the
testimony of the heathen philosophers, and the nature of man.
8. Q. What is said of the means and instrumentalities by which his
redemption would have to be accomplished if man were ever redeemed from
idolatrous worship? A. It would have to be accomplished by means and
instrumentalities adapted to his nature and the circumstances in which
he existed.
9. Q. What was the first thing necessary to be accomplished for man to
relieve himself from the corrupting influence of idolatry? A. That a
pure object of worship should be placed before the eye of the soul.
10. Q. What was the second necessary thing in order to man’s
redemption? A. That when a holy object of worship was revealed the
revelation should be accompanied with sufficient power to influence men
to forsake their former worship, and to worship the holy object made
known to them.
11. Q. What is mentioned as having a tendency to unite the minds of a
whole people into one common mind? A. Any cause which creates a common
interest and a common feeling, common biases and common hopes in the
individual minds which compose a nation.
12. Q. What are some of these causes that are especially strong? A.
A common parentage, a common religion, and a common fellowship in
suffering and deliverance.
13. Q. Upon what people did these causes operate with peculiar force?
A. The Israelites.
14. Q. What follows as the only rational conclusion in regard to the
discipline of the descendants of Abraham? A. First, that the overruling
intelligence of God was employed in thus preparing material for a purer
religious worship than the world then enjoyed; and, second, that a
nation could have been so prepared by no other agent, and in no other
way.
15. Q. What is essential for man to believe that religion has a divine
origin? A. Man can not, in the present constitution of his mind,
believe that religion has a divine origin unless it be accompanied with
miracles.
16. Q. If, therefore, God ever gave a revelation to man, with what was
it necessarily accompanied? A. With miracles, and with miracles of such
a nature as would clearly distinguish the divine character and the
divine authority of the dispensation.
17. Q. In order to give any divine revelation to the Israelites
what two things were necessary? A. First, that God should manifest
himself by miracles; and, second, that those miracles should be of
such a character as evidently to distinguish them from the jugglery
of the magicians, and to convince all observers of the existence and
omnipotence of the true God, in contradistinction from the objects of
idolatrous worship.
18. Q. In view of the idolatrous state of the world, and especially in
view of the character and circumstances of the Israelites, of what is
the demonstration conclusive in regard to the miracles of Egypt? A.
That the true God could have made a revelation of himself in no other
way than by the means and in the manner of the miracles of Egypt; and
none but the true God could have revealed himself in this way.
19. Q. In view of the established laws of the mind, how was it
necessary that the knowledge of God and human duty should be imparted
to the Israelites? A. By successive communications—necessary that
there should be a first step, or primary principles, for a starting
point, and then a progression onward and upward to perfection.
20. Q. In accordance with these principles God revealed only what in
the introduction of the Mosaic dispensation? A. He revealed only his
essential existence to the Israelites.
21. Q. In what way does love for another always influence the will to
act? A. In such a way as will please the object loved.
22. Q. What are the most favorable circumstances possible to fix an
impression deeply upon the heart and memory? A. First, that there
should be protracted and earnest attention; and, second, that at the
same time that the impression is made the emotions of the soul should
be alive with excitement.
23. Q. In view of the nature and circumstances of the Israelites, what
may be affirmed without qualification as to the wonderful series of
events connected with the exodus from Egypt? A. That no combination
of means, not including the self-sacrifice of the benefactor himself,
could be so well adapted to elicit and absorb all the affections of the
soul.
24. Q. What are the four conclusions reached in regard to the
Israelites at this point in the investigation? A. 1. That they
were bound to each other by all the ties of which human nature is
susceptible. 2. Their minds were shaken off from idols. 3. They had
been brought to contemplate God as their Protector and Savior. 4. They
were without laws, either civil or moral.
25. Q. What fact, in regard to a rule of human duty, has the whole
experience of the world confirmed beyond the possibility of skepticism?
A. That man can not discover and establish a perfect rule of human duty.
26. Q. What is that power in the soul which pronounces upon the moral
character of human conduct itself dependent upon and regulated by? A.
The faith of the individual.
27. Q. What is said of a law adapted to man’s nature? A. It must be
addressed to the understanding, sanctioned by suitable authority, and
enforced by adequate penalties.
28. Q. In accordance with these legitimate deductions, what did God
give the Israelites? A. A rule of life—the moral law—succinctly
comprehended in the ten commandments.
29. Q. In order to promote right exercises of heart in religious
worship, with what was it necessary that the Israelites should be made
acquainted? A. With the holiness of God.
30. Q. In what manner was the idea of God’s moral purity conveyed to
the Israelites in accordance with the constitution and condition of the
Jewish mind? A. By the machinery of the Levitical dispensation.
31. Q. Of what is the demonstration conclusive, both from philosophy
and tact, as to the true and necessary idea of God’s attribute of
holiness? A. That it was originated by the patterns of the Levitical
economy, and that it could have been, communicated to mankind, at the
first, in no other way.
32. Q. What is the only way in which a lawgiver can manifest his views
of the demerit of transgression? A. In no other way than by the penalty
which he inflicts upon the transgressor.
33. Q. The more holy and just any being is, what follows as to the
penalty he would inflict for sin? A. The more he is opposed to sin,
the higher penalty will his conscience sanction as the desert of
transgressing the Divine law.
34. Q. In what way only would the mind of man receive an idea of the
amount of God’s opposition to sin? A. By the amount of penalty which he
inflicted upon the sinner.
35. Q. By means of burnt offerings what idea was distinctly and deeply
impressed upon the minds of the Israelites? A. That God’s justice was a
consuming fire to sinners, and that their souls escaped only through a
vicarious atonement.
36. Q. When would the Mosaic machinery, which formed the abstract
ideas, conveying the knowledge of God’s true character, be no longer
useful? A. After those ideas were originated, defined, and connected
with the words which expressed their abstract or spiritual import.
37. Q. In order to the diffusion of the knowledge of God throughout
the world by the method adopted by the Almighty, what three things
would be necessary as pre-requisites, and which are facts as matters of
authentic history? A. 1. That the Jews who possessed those ideas should
be scattered throughout the world. 2. That their propensity to idolatry
should be entirely subdued. 3. That the new and spiritual system should
first be propagated among those who understood both the spiritual
import of the Hebrew language, and likewise the language of the other
nations to whom the Gospel was to be preached.
38. Q. What followed as soon as the new dispensation had been
introduced, and its foundations firmly laid? A. Jerusalem, the center
of the old economy, with the temple and all things pertaining to the
ritual service, was at once and completely destroyed, and the old
system vanished away forever.
39. Q. What is necessary in order to a perfect system of instruction?
A. There must be both precept and example.
40. Q. In what way only could human nature be perfected? A. Only by
following a perfect model of human nature.