taken into account that in some way--however hidden it may be under
allegory--his fall was closely associated with the propagation of the
race. Before the fall we are told that Adam and Eve were in a state of
innocence; [8] but after the fall "The eyes of them both were opened
and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together
and made themselves aprons," [9] and also hid from the presence of the
Lord.
In an incidental way Paul gives us to understand that Adam in the
matter of the first transgression "was not deceived," but that the
woman was. [10] It therefore follows that Adam must have sinned
knowingly, and perhaps deliberately; making choice of obedience between
two laws pressing upon him. With his spouse, Eve, he had received a
commandment from God to be fruitful, to perpetuate his race in the
earth. He had also been told not to partake of a certain fruit of
the Garden of Eden; but according to the story of Genesis, as also
according to the assertion of Paul, Eve, who with Adam received
the commandment to multiply in the earth, was deceived, and by the
persuasion of Lucifer induced to partake of the forbidden fruit. She,
therefore, was in transgression, and subject to the penalty of that
law which from the scriptures we learn included banishment from Eden,
banishment from the presence of God, and also the death of the body.
This meant, if Eve were permitted to stand alone in her transgression,
that she must be alone also in suffering the penalty. In that event
she would have been separated from Adam, which necessarily would have
prevented obedience to the commandment given to them conjointly to
multiply in the earth. In the presence of this situation, therefore,
it is to be believed that Adam was not deceived, either by the cunning
of Lucifer or the blandishments of the woman, deliberately, and with a
full knowledge of his act and its consequences, and in order to carry
out the purpose of God in the existence of man in the earth, shared
alike the woman's transgression and its effects, and this in order
that the first great commandment he had received from God, viz.--"Be
fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it"--might
not fail of fulfillment. Hence "Adam fell that man might be."
The effect of this doctrine upon the ideas of men concerning the great
Patriarch of our race will be revolutionary. It seems to be the fashion
of those who assume to teach the Christian religion to denounce Adam
in unmeasured terms; as if the fall of man had surprised, if, indeed,
it did altogether thwart, the original plan of God respecting the
existence of man in the earth. The creeds of the churches generally
fail to consider the "fall" as part of God's purpose regarding this
world, and, in its way, as essential to the accomplishment of that
purpose as the "redemption" through Jesus Christ. Certainly there would
have been no occasion for the "redemption" had there been no "fall;"
and hence no occasion for the display of all that wealth of grace and
mercy and justice and love--all that richness of experience involved
in the gospel of Jesus Christ, had there been no "fall." It cannot be
but that it was part of God's purpose to display these qualities in
their true relation, for the benefit and blessing and experience and
enlargement and ultimate uplifting of man; and since there would have
been no occasion for displaying them but for the "fall," it logically
follows that the "fall," no less than the "redemption," must have been
part of God's original plan respecting the earth-probation of man. The
"fall," undoubtedly was a fact as much present to the fore-knowledge
of God as was the "redemption;" and the act which encompassed it must
be regarded as more praise-worthy than blame-worthy, since it was
essential to the accomplishment of the divine purpose. Yet, as I say,
those who assume to teach Christianity roundly denounce Adam for his
transgression. An accepted teacher of Catholic doctrine says:
The Catholic Church teaches that Adam, by his sin, has not only
caused harm to himself, but to the whole human race; that by it
he lost the supernatural justice and holiness which he received
gratuitously from God, and lost it, not only for himself, but also
for all of us; and that he, having stained himself with the sin of
disobedience, has transmitted not only death and other bodily pains
and infirmities to the whole human race, but also sin, which is the
death of the soul. [11]
And again:
Unhappily, Adam, by his sin of disobedience, which was also a sin
of pride, disbelief, and ambition, forfeited, or, more properly
speaking, rejected that original justice; and we, as members of the
human family, of which he was the head, are also implicated in that
guilt of self-spoliation, or rejection and deprivation of those
supernatural gifts; not, indeed, on account of our having willed
it with our personal will, but by having willed it with the will
of our first parent, to whom we are linked by nature as members to
their head. [12]
Still again, and this from the Catholic Douay Catechism:
Q. How did we lose original justice?
A. By Adam's disobedience to God in eating the forbidden fruit.
Q. How do you prove that?
A. Out of Rom. v: 12, "By one man sin entered into the world, and
by sin death; and so into all men death did pass, in whom all have
sinned."
Q. Had man ever died if he had never sinned?
A. He would not, but would live in a state of justice and at length
would be translated alive to the fellowship of the angels. [13]
From a Protestant source I quote the following:
In the fall of man we may observe: (1) The greatest infidelity. (2)
Prodigious pride. (3) Horrid ingratitude. (4) Visible contempt of
God's majesty and justice. (5) Unaccountable folly. (6) A cruelty
to himself and to all his posterity. [14]
Another Protestant authority says:
The tree of knowledge of good and evil revealed to those who ate
its fruit secrets of which they had better have remained ignorant;
for the purity of man's happiness consisted in doing and loving
good without even knowing evil. [15]
From these several passages as also indeed from the whole tenor of
Christian writings upon this subject, the fall of Adam is quite
generally deplored and upon him is laid a very heavy burden of
responsibility. It was he, they complain, who,
Brought death into the world, and all our woe.
One great division of Christendom in its creed, it is true, in dealing
with the fall, concedes that "God was pleased according to his wise and
holy counsel, to permit [the fall] having purposed to order it to his
own glory." [16]
And in an authoritative explanation of this section they say, "That
this sin [the fall] was permissively embraced in the sovereign purpose
of God." And still further in explanation:
Its purpose [i. e., of the fall] being God's general plan, and one
eminently wise and righteous, to introduce all the new created
subjects of moral government into a state of probation for a time
in which he makes their permanent character and destiny depend upon
their own action.
Still, this sin, described as being permissively embraced in the
sovereign purpose of Deity, God designed "to order it to his own
glory;" but it nowhere appears according to this confession of faith
that the results of the fall are to be of any benefit to man. The
only thing consulted in the theory of this creed seems to be the
manifestation of the glory of God--a thing which represents God as a
most selfish being--but just how the glory of God can be manifested
by the "fall" which, according to this creed, results in the eternal
damnation of the overwhelming majority of his "creatures," is not quite
apparent.
Those who made this Westminister Confession, as also the large
following which accept it, concede that their theory involves them at
least in two difficulties which they confess it is impossible for them
to overcome. These are, respectively: First, "How could sinful desires
or volitions originate in the soul of mortal agents created holy like
Adam and Eve;" and, second, "how can sin be permissively embraced in
the eternal purpose of God and not involve him as responsible for the
sin?" "If it be asked," say they, "why God, who abhors sin, and who
benevolently desires the excellence and happiness of his creatures,
should sovereignly determine to permit such a fountain of pollution,
degradation, and misery to be opened, we can only say, with profound
reverence, 'Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."' [17]
These difficulties, however, are the creed's and those who accept it,
not ours, and do not further concern our discussion at this point.
Infidels--under which general term (and I do not use it offensively)
I mean all those who do not accept the Christian creeds, nor believe
the Bible to be a revelation--infidels, I say, quite generally deride
the fall of man as represented both in the creeds of Christendom and
in the Bible. They regard the tremendous consequences attendant upon
eating the forbidden fruit as altogether out of proportion with the act
itself, and universally hold that a moral economy which would either
design or permit such a calamity as the fall is generally supposed to
be, as altogether unworthy of an all-merciful and just Deity. Thomas
Paine referring to it says:
"Putting aside everything that might excite laughter by its
absurdity, or detestation by its profaneness, and confining
ourselves merely to an examination of the parts, it is impossible
to conceive a story more derogatory to the Almighty, more
inconsistent with his wisdom, more contradictory to his power, than
this story is. [18]
In their contentions against the story of Genesis, no less than in
their war upon "the fall" and "original sin" in the men made creeds of
Christendom, infidels have denounced God in most blasphemous terms as
the author of all the evil in this world by permitting, through not
preventing, the fall; and they as soundly ridicule and abuse Adam for
the part he took in the affair. He has been held up by them as weak and
cowardly, because he referred his partaking of the forbidden fruit to
the fact that the woman gave to him and he did eat; a circumstance into
which they read an effort on the part of the man to escape censure,
perhaps punishment, and to cast the blame for his transgression upon
the woman. These scoffers proclaim their preference for the variations
of this story of a "fall of man" as found in the mythologies of various
peoples, say those of Greece or India. [19] But all this aside. The
truth is that nothing could be more courageous, sympathetic, or nobly
honorable than the course of our world's great Patriarch in his
relations to his wife Eve and the "fall." The woman by deception is
led into transgression, and stands under the penalty of a broken law.
Banishment from the presence of God; banishment from the presence
of her husband, if he partakes not with her in the transgression;
dissolution of spirit and body--physical death--all await her!
Thereupon, the man, not deceived, but knowingly (as we are assured by
Paul), also transgresses. Why? In one aspect of the case in order that
he might share the woman's banishment from the dear presence of God,
and with her die--than which no higher proof of love could be given--no
nobler act of chivalry performed. But primarily he transgressed that
"Man might be." He transgressed a less important law that he might
comply with one more important, if one may so speak of any of God's
laws. The facts are, as we shall presently see, that the conditions
which confronted Adam in his earth-life were afore time known to him;
that of his own volition he accepted them, and came to earth to meet
them.
Man an Immortal Spirit.
Man is an immortal spirit. By saying that, I mean not only a never
ending existence for the "soul" of man in the future, through the
resurrection, but a proper immortality that means the eternal existence
of the "ego"--interchangeably called "mind," "spirit," "soul,"
"intelligence." I mean existence before birth as well as existence
after death. I believe that an "immortality" which refers to continued
existence after death only is but half a truth. A real immortality is
forever immortal, and includes an existence before life on earth as
surely as an existence after death. [20] This view of the intelligence
or spirit of man is supported by the Bible. Without going into the
subject at length I call attention to the fact that Jesus himself had
very clear conceptions of his own spirit-existence before his birth
into this world; a fact which is evident from the declaration he made
to the Jews when he said, "Verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was,
I am." [21] (i. e. existed). And again, in his prayer in Gethsemane, "O
Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had
with thee before the world was." [22] This spirit pre-existence extends
also to all the children of men; who, in their physical structure
and even in faculties of mind, so nearly resembled Jesus, though, of
course, immeasurably below him in the developed excellence of those
qualities. We read of the "sons of God shouting for joy" in heaven
when the foundations of the earth were laid; [23] of the war in heaven
when Michael and his angels fought against the dragon (Satan), and the
dragon and his angels fought, and he with them was cast out into the
earth. [24] These were the angels which kept not their first estate,
but left their own habitation, and who are reserved in everlasting
chains unto the judgment of the last days. [25] "Before I formed thee
in the belly I knew thee," said the Lord to Jeremiah, "and sanctified
thee and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations;" [26] "We have had
fathers of the flesh, and we give them reverence," said Paul to the
Hebrews, "Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of
spirits and live?" [27] All of which passages tend to prove that not
only Jesus but the spirits of all men existed before they tabernacled
in the flesh. This of course is but a brief glance at the question as
supported by the Jewish scriptures. [28]
The Book of Mormon while not in any formal manner teaching this
doctrine of the pre-existence of the spirits of men, does so very
effectually in an incidental way. For example: the Lord Jesus, long
ages before his advent into earth-life, revealed himself to the Book of
Mormon character known as the Brother of Jared, and in doing so he said:
Behold I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world
to redeem my people; * * * and never have I showed myself unto man
whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast.
Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image [likeness]?
Yea, even all men were created in the beginning after mine own
image. Behold this body which ye now behold, is the body of my
spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and
even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit, will I appear unto
my people in the flesh. [29]
Here a great doctrine is revealed. Not only the fact of the
pre-existence of the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, that is, the
existence of his spirit in tangible, human form before his earthly
existence, but a like existence for the spirits of all men is
proclaimed. Moreover, it is made known that as Jesus appeared in the
spirit to this Jaredite prophet, so would he appear unto his people
in the flesh. That is to say, the bodily form of flesh and bone would
conform in appearance to the spirit form; the earthly would be like
unto the heavenly, the human, to the divine. And so with all men.
Christian theologians are thought to have discovered a great truth
when in the preface of St. John's Gospel they found the doctrine of
the co-eternity and co-divinity of the Father and the Son in the holy
trinity; namely,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. * * * And the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and
truth. [30]
The identity between the "Word" of this passage and Jesus--the
"Word made flesh" is complete. And he was in the beginning with
God--co-eternal with him; and the "Word was God."--that is, he was
divine, he was more, he was Divinity--he was Deity.
In a revelation to Joseph Smith this same truth is repeated and more is
added to it, as follows:
Verily, I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father,
and am the first-born. * * * Ye [referring to the Elders in whose
presence the revelation was given] were also in the beginning with
the Father; that which is spirit [that is, that part of man which
is spirit, that was in the beginning with the Father]. * * Man [i.
e., the race, the term is generic] was also in the beginning with
God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made,
neither indeed can be. [31]
The doctrine in the foregoing quotation is in harmony with the Book of
Mormon and with the Bible; but goes beyond them in that it gives us
the understanding "that intelligence was not created or made, neither
indeed can be." That is to say, the individual intelligence in all men
was not created, or made, "neither indeed can be"--it is not only not
created but is _uncreatable_.
There is something in man, then, that is eternal, uncreate. Just what
that is, the form of it, or the mode of its existence, we may not know,
since it has not pleased God so far to reveal these aspects of it. But
he has revealed the fact of its existence, the fact of its eternity,
the fact that it is an intelligence. One must needs think, too, that
the name of this eternal entity--what God calls him--conveys to the
mind some idea of his nature. He is called an "Intelligence;" and this
I believe is descriptive of him. That is, intelligence is the entity's
chief characteristic. If this be a true deduction, then the entity must
be conscious; conscious of self and of other things than self. He must
have the power to distinguish himself from other things--the "me" from
the "not me." He must have power of deliberation, by which he sets over
one thing against another; with power also to form a judgment that this
or that is a better thing or state than some other thing or state.
Also there goes with this idea of intelligence a power of choosing one
thing instead of another, one state rather than another--the power to
will to do this or that, else existence is meaningless, worthless,
mockery. These powers are inseparably connected with any idea that may
be formed of an intelligence. One cannot conceive of an intelligence
existing without these qualities any more than he can conceive of an
object existing in space without dimensions. The phrase, "the light of
truth." is given in the revelation above quoted as the equivalent of an
"Intelligence" here discussed; by which it is meant to be understood,
as I think, that intelligent entities perceive truth, are conscious of
truth, they know that which is, hence "the light of truth," that which
cognizes truth--"intelligences." These intelligences are begotten [32]
spirits that exist in human form. They exist so before they tabernacle
in the flesh. In this manner, first, and eternally, as an individual
intelligence, and secondly as a begotten spirit in human form, Jesus
existed; so the spirits of all men existed; so Adam existed, a Son of
God, for so the scriptures declare him to be. [33]
In addition to teaching the doctrine of the pre-existence of man's
spirit, the Book of Mormon teaches also the indestructibility of the
spirit. The prophet Alma expressly says, that "the soul would never
die;" [34] which, according to Orson Pratt, in a foot note on the
passage, means that the "soul" could "never be dissolved, or its
parts be separated so as to disorganize the spiritual personage;" and
since the Book of Mormon teaches the pre-existence of this "soul,"
or "spirit," and also teaches its continued existence between death
and the resurrection, [35] as also its indestructibility after the
resurrection, [36] it is very clear that the Book of Mormon teaches
what I have called "proper immortality of the soul;" an immortality
that extends pastward as well as foreward in time; or, in other words,
declares its essential, its eternal existence; hence its necessary
existence, hence that it is a self-existing entity.
In thinking then upon this earth career of Adam's, it must be thought
of in connection with that pre-existence of his, of that eternal
existence of his, and of his knowledge of what would befall him when
he came to the earth. He came on no fool's errand, to be betrayed by
chance happenings. If redemption through Jesus Christ was a foreknown
circumstance,--and it was--and he was appointed as the "Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world," [37] to bring to pass man's redemption,
then surely the circumstance of man's fall was known, doubtless
pre-determined upon, and in some way essential to the accomplishment of
the purposes of God; not an accidental or even a temporary thwarting
of them; but as much a part of God's plan with reference to man's
earth-existence, as any circumstance whatsoever connected with that
existence.
Let us now consider the second part of Lehi's Generalization:
Men are that they might have joy.
That is to say, the purpose of man's earth-life is in some way to be
made to contribute to his "joy," which is but another way of saying,
that man's earth-life is to eventuate in his advantage.
"Men are that they might have joy!" What is meant by that? Have we
here the reappearance of the old Epicurean doctrine, "pleasure is the
supreme good, and chief end of life?" No, verily! Nor any other form of
old "hedonism" [38]--the Greek ethics of gross self-interest. For mark,
in the first place, the different words "joy" and "pleasure." They are
not synonymous. The first does not necessarily arise from the second,
"joy" may arise from quite other sources than "pleasure," from pain,
even, when the endurance of pain is to eventuate in the achievement
of some good: such as the travail of a mother in bringing forth her
offspring; the weariness and pain and danger of toil by a father, to
secure comforts for loved ones. Moreover, whatever apologists may say,
it is very clear that the "pleasure" of the Epicurean philosophy,
hailed as "the supreme good and chief end in life," was to arise from
agreeable sensations, or what ever gratified the senses, and hence
was, in the last analysis of it--in its roots and branches--in its
theory and in its practice--"sensualism." It was to result in physical
ease and comfort, and mental inactivity--other than a conscious,
self-complacence--being regarded as "the supreme good and chief end
of life." I judge this to be the net result of this philosophy since
these are the very conditions in which Epicureans describe even the
gods to exist; [39] and surely men could not hope for more "pleasure,"
or greater happiness than that possessed by their gods. Cicero even
charges that the sensualism of Epicurus was so gross that he represents
him as blaming his brother, Timocrates, "because he would not allow
that everything which had any reference to a happy life was to be
measured by the belly; nor has he," continues Cicero, "said this once
only, but often."
This is not the "joy," it is needles to say, contemplated in the Book
of Mormon. Nor is the "joy" there contemplated the "joy" of mere
innocence--mere innocence, which say what you will of it, is but a
negative sort of virtue. A virtue that is colorless, never quite
sure of itself, always more or less uncertain, because untried. [40]
Such a virtue--if mere absence of vice may be called virtue--would
be unproductive of that "joy" the attainment of which is set forth
in the Book of Mormon as the purpose of man's existence; for in the
context it is written, "They [Adam and Eve] would have remained in a
state of 'innocence.' Having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing
no good, for they knew no sin." From which it appears that the "joy"
contemplated in our Book of Mormon passage is to arise from something
more than mere innocence, which is, impliedly, unproductive of "joy."
The "joy" contemplated in the Book of Mormon passage is to arise out
of man's rough and thorough knowledge of evil, of sin; through knowing
misery, sorrow, pain and suffering; through seeing good and evil
locked in awful conflict; through a consciousness of having chosen
in that conflict the better part, the good; and not only in having
chosen it, but in having wedded it by eternal compact; made it his
by right of conquest over evil. It is a "joy" that will arise from a
consciousness of having "fought the good fight," of having "kept the
faith." It will arise from a consciousness of moral, spiritual and
physical strength. Of strength gained in conflict. The strength that
comes from experience; from having sounded the depths of the soul; from
experiencing all emotions of which mind is susceptible; from testing
all the qualities and strength of the intellect. A "joy" that will come
to man from a contemplation of the universe, and a consciousness that
he is an heir to all that is--a joint heir with Jesus Christ and God;
from knowing that he is an essential part of all that is. It is a joy
that will be born of the consciousness of existence itself--that will
revel in existence--in thoughts of and realizations of existence's
limitless possibilities. A "joy" born of the consciousness of the
power of eternal increase. A "joy" arising from association with the
Intelligences of innumerable heavens--the Gods of all eternities. A
"joy," born of a consciousness of being, of intelligence, of faith,
knowledge, light, truth, mercy, justice, love, glory, dominion, wisdom,
power; all feelings, affections, emotions, passions; all heights and
all depths! "Men are that they might have joy;" and that "joy" is based
upon and contemplates all that is here set down.
We may now consider the "fall of man" and the "purpose of his
existence" as related subjects--as standing somewhat in the
relationship of means to an end. We shall now be able to regard the
"fall of man," not as an accident, not as surprising, and all but
thwarting, God's purposes, but as part of the divinely appointed
program of man's earth-existence.
Here, then, stands the truth so far as it may be gathered from God's
word and the nature of things: There is in man an eternal, uncreate,
self-existing entity, call it "intelligence," "mind," "spirit,"
"soul"--what you will, so long as you recognize it, and regard its
nature as eternal. There came a time when in the progress of things,
(which is only another way of saying in the "nature of things") an
earth career, or earth existence, because of the things it has to
teach, was necessary to the enlargement, to the advancement of these
"intelligences," these "spirits," "souls." Hence an earth is prepared;
and one sufficiently advanced and able, by the nature of him to bring
to pass the events, is chosen, through whom this earth-existence,
with all its train of events--its mingled miseries and comforts, its
sorrows and joys, its pains and pleasures, its good, and its evil--may
be brought to pass. He comes to earth with his appointed spouse. He
comes primarily to bring to pass man's earth life. He comes to the earth
with the solemn injunction upon him: "Be fruitful and multiply, and
replenish the earth, and subdue it." But he comes with the knowledge
that this earth-existence of eternal "Intelligences" is to be lived
under circumstances that will contribute to their enlargement, to their
advancement. They are to experience joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure;
witness the effect of good and evil, and exercise their agency in the
choice of good or of evil. To accomplish this end, the local, or earth
harmony of things must be broken. Evil to be seen, and experienced,
must enter the world, which can only come to pass through the violation
of law. The law is given--"of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day thou eatest of it thou
shalt surely die." The woman forgetful of the purpose of the earth
mission of herself and spouse is led by flattery and deceit into the
violation of that law, and becomes subject to its penalties--merely
another name for its effect. But the man, not deceived, but discerning
clearly the path of duty, and in order that earth-existence may be
provided for the great hosts of spirits to come to earth under the
conditions prescribed--he also transgresses the law, not only that
men might be, but that they might have that being under the very
circumstances deemed essential to the enlargement, to the progress of
eternal Intelligences. Adam did not sin because deceived by another.
He did not sin maliciously, or with evil intent; or to gratify an
inclination to rebellion against God, or to thwart the Divine purposes,
or to manifest his own pride. Had his act of sin involved the taking
of life rather than eating a forbidden fruit, it would be regarded
as a "sacrifice" rather than a "murder." This to show the nature of
Adam's transgression. It was a transgression of the law--"for sin is
the transgression of the law" [41]--that conditions deemed necessary to
the progress of eternal Intelligences might obtain. Adam sinned that
men might be, and not only "be," but "be" under conditions essential
to progress. But Adam did sin. He did break the law; and violation
of law involves the violator in its penalties, as surely as effect
follows cause. Upon this principle depends the dignity and majesty of
law. Take this fact away from moral government and your moral laws
become mere nullities. Therefore, notwithstanding Adam fell that men
might be, in his transgression there was at bottom a really exalted
motive--a motive that contemplated nothing less than bringing to pass
the highly necessary purposes of God with respect to man's existence
in the earth--yet his transgression of law was followed by certain
moral effects in the nature of men and in the world. The harmony of
things was broken; discord ruled; changed relations between God and
men took place, darkness, sin and death stalked through the world,
and conditions were brought to pass in the midst of which the eternal
Intelligences might gain those experiences that such conditions have to
teach.
Now as to the second part of the great truth--"men are that they might
have joy"--viewed also in the light of the "Intelligence" or "spirit"
in man being an eternal, uncreated, self-existing entity. Remembering
what I have already said in these pages as to the nature of this "joy"
which it is the purpose of earth-existence to secure, remembering
from what it is to arise--from the highest possible development--the
highest conceivable enlargement of physical, intellectual, moral
and spiritual power--what other conceivable purpose for existence
in earth-life could there be for eternal Intelligences than this
attainment of "joy" springing from progress? Man's existence for the
manifestation alone of God's glory, as taught by the creeds of men,
is not equal to it. That view represents man as but a thing created,
and God as selfish and vain of glory. True, the Book of Mormon idea of
the purpose of man's existence, is accompanied by a manifestation of
God's glory; for with the progress of Intelligences there must be an
ever widening manifestation of the glory of God. It is written that
the "glory of God is Intelligence;" and it must follow, as clearly as
the day follows night, that with the enlargement, with the progress
of Intelligences, there must ever be a constantly increasing splendor
in the manifestation of the glory of God. But in the Book of Mormon
doctrine, the manifestation of that glory is incidental. The primary
purpose is not in that manifestation, but in the "joy" arising from the
progress of Intelligences. And yet that fact adds to the glory of God,
but our book represents the Lord as seeking the enlargement and "joy"
of kindred Intelligences, rather than the mere selfish manifestation
of his own, personal glory. "This is my work and my glory," says the
Lord, in another "Mormon" scripture, "to bring to pass the immortality
and eternal life of man, as man;" [42] and therein is God's "joy." A
"joy" that grows from the progress of others; from bringing to pass
the immortality and eternal life of "man." Not the immortality of the
"spirit" of man, mark you, for that immortality already exists, but to
bring to pass the immortality of the spirit and body in their united
condition, and which together constitutes "man." [43] And the purpose
for which man is, is that he might have "joy;" that "joy" which, in
the last analysis of things, should be even as God's "joy," and God's
glory, namely, the bringing to pass the progress, enlargement, and
"joy" of others.
It is gratifying to know that this Book of Mormon definition of life
and its purpose, so far as it affects the human race, is receiving
unconscious support from some of the first philosophers of modern
days, among whom I may mention Lester F. Ward, author of "Outlines of
Sociology" and other scientific and philosophical works; a Lecturer
in the School of Sociology of the Hartford Society for Education
Extension. His "Outlines of Sociology" was published in 1904, and
in the chapter of that work, in which he discusses the relation of
sociology to psychology, (chapter v), he deals with the question of
life and its object. For the purpose of clearly setting forth his
thought, he says:
"The biological [i. e. that which pertains merely to the life] must be
clearly marked off from the psychological [i. e. as here used, that
which pertains to feeling] standpoint. The former," he continues,
"is that of function, the latter that of feeling. It is convenient,
and almost necessary, in order to gain a correct conception of these
relations to personify Nature, as it were, and bring her into strong
contrast with the sentient [one capable of perception is here meant]
creature. Thus viewed, each may be conceived to have its own special
end. The end of Nature is function, i. e. life. It is biological.
The end of the creature is feeling, i. e. it is psychic. From the
standpoint of Nature, feeling is a means to function. From the
standpoint of the organism, function is a means to feeling. Pleasure
and pain came into existence in order that a certain class of beings
might live, but those beings, having been given existence, now live in
order to enjoy."
Throughout the chapter he maintains that the purpose of man's existence
is for pleasure, but of course, holds that this pleasure is that of
the highest order, and not merely sensual pleasure. Finally, applying
the principles he lays down to the human race, its existence, the
purpose of that existence, and the means through which the end is to be
obtained--he adopts the following formula:
The object of nature is function [i. e., life].
The object of man is happiness.
The object of society is effort.
Now, with very slight modifications, this formula may be made to
express the doctrine of Lehi in the Book of Mormon, as representing the
divine economy respecting man:
Earth-life became essential to the progress of intelligences.
Adam fell that man's earth-life might be realized.
The purpose of man's existence is that he might have joy.
The purpose of the gospel is to bring to pass that joy.
In condensed form it may be made to stand as follows:
The object of God in man's earth-life is progress.
The object of man's existence is joy.
The object of the gospel and the church is effort.
A formula which so closely resembles this philosopher's--and his
philosophy is that of many other advanced modern thinkers--that it
justifies me in making the claim that the trend of the best modern
thought on these lines is coming into harmony with the truths stated in
the Book of Mormon.
VIII.
_The Agency of Man._
Respecting the "free agency" of man the Book of Mormon is quite
pronounced as to the fact of it, as the following quotations attest:
I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether
it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto
men, according to their wills; whether they be unto salvation or
unto destruction. [44]
Again,
The Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Men are
free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which
are expedient unto man. And they are free to chose liberty and
eternal life, through the great mediation of all men, or to choose
captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the
devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto
himself. [45]
The doctrine of the free agency of man could scarcely be more strongly
set forth than it is in these passages.
A word in relation to this question of free agency. Of course it is
recognized as one of the great theological questions that has puzzled
mankind. By the phrase, free agency is here meant to represent that
power or capacity of the mind or spirit to act freely and of its own
volition, with reference to these matters, that are within the power
of its achievement. That is to say, it is not meant that by an act of
will man may overcome the force we call gravitation, and leave the
earth at his pleasure; or that he can pluck down the moon by an act of
will; or influence a mass of people at his will and against theirs; or
create two mountains without a valley between them; but what is meant
is, that man possesses the quality of determining his own actions, his
own course with reference to things that are within the realm of the
possibility of his achievement, and more especially, with reference to
moral questions; that man has the power to take a course in harmony
with those moral ideals that he has created by his own intellectual
force or that have been created for him by his education, or the
environment in which he has lived; that he can decide for himself to
walk in harmony with these ideals, or that wontingly, and against all
that he conceives to be to his best interest, he can violate them and
walk contrary to what in his heart he knows to be right and true. This
constitutes his freedom, his agency, and it is because of this fact
that he is morally responsible for his conduct.
I have nowhere else found a statement of the facts involved in free
agency so clearly set forth as in Guizot's "History of Civilization,"
from which I summarize the following:
1. _Power of Deliberation_--The mind is conscious of a power of
deliberation. Before the intellect passes the different motives
of action, interests, passions, opinions, etc. The intellect
considers, compares, estimates, and finally judges them. This is a
preparatory work which precedes the act of will.
2. _Liberty, Free Agency or Will_--When deliberation has taken
place--when man has taken full cognizance of the motives which
present themselves to him, he takes a resolution, of which he looks
upon himself as the author, which arises because he wishes it and
which would not arise unless he did wish it--here the fact of
agency is shown; it resides in the resolution which man makes after
deliberation; it is the resolution which is the proper act of man,
which subsists by him alone; a simple fact independent of all the
facts which precede it or surround it.
3. _Free Will, or Agency Modified_--At the same time that man
feels himself free, he recognizes the fact that his freedom is not
arbitrary, that it is placed under the dominion of a law which will
preside over it and influence it. What that law is will depend upon
the education of each individual, upon his surroundings, etc. To
act in harmony with that law is what man recognizes as his duty; it
will be the task of his liberty. He will soon see, however, that he
never fully acquits himself of his task, never acts in full harmony
with his moral law. Morally capable of conforming himself to his
law, he falls short of doing it. He does not accomplish all that he
ought, nor all that he can. This fact is evident, one of which all
may give witness; and it often happens that the best men, that is,
those who have best conformed their will to reason, have often been
the most struck with their insufficience.
4. _Necessity of External Assistance_--This weakness in man leads
him to feel the necessity of an external support to operate as
a fulcrum for the human will, a power that may be added to its
present power and sustain it at need. Man seeks this fulcrum on
all sides; he demands it in the encouragement of friends, in the
councils of the wise; but as the visible world, the human society,
do not always answer to his desires, the soul goes beyond the
visible world, above human relations, to seek this fulcrum of which
it has need. Hence the religious sentiment develops itself; man
addresses himself to God, and invokes his aid through prayer.
5. _Man Finds the Help He Seeks_--Such is the nature of man that
when he sincerely asks this support he obtains it; that is, seeking
it is almost sufficient to secure it. Whosoever, feeling his will
weak, invokes the encouragement of a friend, the influence of wise
councils, the support of public opinion, or who addresses himself
to God by prayer, soon feels his will fortified in a certain
measure and for a certain time.
6. _Influence of the Spiritual World on Liberty_--There are
spiritual influences at work on man--the empire of the spiritual
world upon liberty. There are certain changes, certain moral events
which manifest themselves in man without his being able to refer
their origin to an act of his will, or being able to recognize the
author. Certain facts occur in the interior of the human soul which
it does not refer to itself, which it does not recognize as the
work of its own will. There are certain days, certain moments in
which it finds itself in a different moral state from that which
it was last conscious of under the operations of its own will. In
other words, the moral man does not wholly create himself; he is
conscious that causes, that powers external to himself, act upon
and modify him imperceptibly--this fact has been called the grace
of God, which helps the will of man.
After giving full weight to all the facts here set forth--and certainly
each one enters as a factor into the question of man's freedom--the
Book of Mormon doctrine stands true. There is such a quality of man's
mind. He is conscious of it. Conscious of the power of deliberation;
conscious of the existence of moral obligation pressing upon him;
conscious of his own weakness that makes him feel unable to rise to
the high level of his full duty; conscious of his need of external
assistance; conscious of his will being made stronger by appealing
to the counsel of his friends, and appealing to God for help through
prayer; conscious of the fact that he is in different states of moral
feeling at different times, owing, doubtless, to this appeal that he
makes to external aids--yet, in the last analysis of it all, he remains
conscious of the fact that what he does, not only can be, but is, a
self-determining act, and he remains conscious of the power that he
could do otherwise if he would. This consciousness and this freedom
are the most stupendous facts in human existence, and upon their
reality--upon their truth--depends all the glory of that existence.
Arriving here the outlook concerning man's possibilities for the future
is immense. Sir Oliver Lodge speaking of man, after arriving at this
point in his development, the attainment of consciousness and free
will, recently said:
On this planet man is the highest outcome of the process so far (i.
e., the process of development), and is, therefore, the highest
representation of Deity that here exists. Terribly imperfect as
yet, because so recently evolved, he is nevertheless a being which
has at length attained to consciousness and free-will, a being
unable to be coerced by the whole force of the universe, against
his will; a spark of the divine Spirit, therefore, never more to be
quenched. Open still to awful horrors, to agonies of remorse, but
to floods of joy also, he persists, and his destiny is largely in
his own hands; he may proceed up or down, he may advance towards
a magnificent ascendency, he may recede towards depths of infamy.
He is not coerced: he is guided and influenced, but he is free to
choose. The evil and the good are necessary correlatives; freedom
to choose the one involves freedom to choose the other. [46]
This is the doctrine then of the Book of Mormon: the existence in
man as a quality of his mind or spirit freedom and power to will, to
determine for himself his course. He may choose good or evil. The
freedom of righteousness, or the bondage of sin. If man finds his will
strengthened in favor of choosing the good by appealing for help to
external aids, to God through prayer, and that help comes in the form
of the grace of God, and becomes a factor in helping man into a state
of righteousness, it should be remembered that the act of appealing for
external help was the exercise of man's free agency. He willed to do
good and sought help to carry out his determination; and the assistance
of the grace of God so obtained in no way operates to destroy the
freedom of man's will. In concluding this subject, it may be said that
the Book of Mormon in an authoritative way settles conclusively the
great theological question of the free agency of man.
W. H. Mallack, in his work on "The Reconstruction of Religious Belief"
(1905), has a most fascinating chapter on human freedom [47] in
which he illustrates on broad lines the universal though unconscious
assumption of the fact of human freedom in both literature and history.
Of the characters created by the great poets, he remarks: "They
interest us as born to freedom, and not naturally slaves, and they pass
before us like kings in a Roman triumph. Once let us suppose these
characters to be mere puppets of heredity and circumstance, and they and
the works that deal with them lose all intelligible content, and we
find ourselves confused and wearied with the fury of an idiot's tale."
On the criticism of historical characters he says: "All this praising
and blaming is based on the assumption that the person praised or
blamed is the originator of his own actions, and not a mere transmitter
of forces." And further, all debating on the value of historical
characters would be meaningless, "if it were not for the inveterate
belief that a man's significance for men resides primarily in what he
makes of himself, not in what he has been made by an organism derived
from his parents, and the various external stimuli to which it has
automatically responded." Our author also points out the truth that
forgiveness itself among men (and he might well have extended his
argument to the forgiveness God imparts to men also) assumes the fact
of human freedom--else what is there to be forgiven! The believer in
freedom says to the offending party, "I forgive you for the offense of
not having done your best." The assumption is that the offender could
have refrained from giving one offense--he had freedom and power to
have done otherwise. One not believing in human freedom would say to
the offending party: "I neither forgive nor blame you; for, although
you have done your worst, your worst was your best also" & having
no freedom, he was under no obligation; his action was indifferent,
neither good nor bad; there was no blame or praise possible; he is
neither a subject for mercy nor justice to act upon.
In the course of the discussion to which attention is called, our
author has contributed an idea worthy of all acceptation and is
valuable for the reason that it goes outside the beaten paths followed
in the free will controversy: "When most people talk of believing in
moral freedom, they mean by freedom a power which exhausts itself in
acts of choice between a series of alternative courses; but, important
though such choice, as a function of freedom is, the root idea of
freedom lies deeper still. It consists in the idea, not that a man is,
as a personality, the first and the sole cause of his choice between
alternative courses, but that he is, in a true, even if in a qualified
sense, the first cause of what he does, or feels, or is, whether
this involves an act of choice, or consists of an unimpeded impulse.
Freedom of choice between alternatives is the consequence of this
primary faculty. It is the form in which the faculty is most noticeably
manifested; but it is not the primary faculty of personal freedom
itself."
I believe this fact in relation to man's freedom; that it is a quality
capable of manifesting itself in other modes than choice between
alternatives; that it may project an unimpeded line of conduct, and yet
in this world its chief manifestations are in a choice between things
opposite and we shall see later, according to the Book of Mormon,
that conditions in this world are so ordained in the existence of
opposites--antinomies--that man may exercise this quality of freedom in
the choice of alternatives.
IX.
_The Atonement._
After giving an account of the fall of man, substantially as found in
Genesis, the Nephite prophet Alma, is represented in the Book of Mormon
as teaching his son Corianton the doctrine of the atonement, as follows:
###_Alma's Doctrine of Atonement_.
And now we see by this, that our first parents were cut off, both
temporally and spiritually, from the presence of the Lord; and thus
we see they became subjects to follow after their own will.
Now, behold, it was not expedient that man should be reclaimed
from this temporal death, for that would destroy the great plan of
happiness;
Therefore, as the soul could never die, and the fall had brought
upon all mankind a spiritual death as well as a temporal; that is,
they were cut off from the presence of the Lord, it was expedient
that mankind should be reclaimed from this spiritual death;
Therefore, as they had become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by
nature, this probationary state became a state for them [in which]
to prepare; it became a preparatory state.
And now remember, my son, if it were not for the plan of redemption
(laying it aside), as soon as they were dead, their souls were
miserable, being cut off from the presence of the Lord.
And now there was no means to reclaim men from this fallen state
which man had brought upon himself, because of his own disobedience;
Therefore, according to justice, the plan of redemption could not
be brought about, only on conditions, of repentance of men in this
probationary state; yea, this preparatory state; for except it were
for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should
destroy the work of justice. Now the work of justice could not be
destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God.
And thus we see that all mankind were fallen, and they were in the
grasp of justice; yea, the justice of God, which consigned them
forever to be cut off from his presence.
And now the plan of mercy could not be brought about, except an
atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the
sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the
demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a
merciful God also.
Now repentance could not come unto men, except there were a
punishment, which also was eternal as the life of the soul should
be, affixed opposite to the plan of happiness, which was as eternal
also as the life of the soul.
Now, how could a man repent, except he should sin? How could he
sin, if there was no law, how could there be a law, save there was
a punishment?
Now there was a punishment affixed, and a just law given, which
brought remorse of conscience unto man.
Now, if there was no law given--if a man murdered he should die,
would he be afraid he would die if he should murder?
And also, if there was no law given against sin, men would not be
afraid to sin.
And if there was no law given if men sinned, what could justice do,
or mercy either; for they would have no claim upon the creature?
But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a
repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise
justice claimeth the creature, and executeth the law, and the law
inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be
destroyed, and God would cease to be God.
But God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and
mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth
to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the
dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are
restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works;
according to the law and justice;
For, behold, justice exerciseth all his demands, and also mercy
claimeth all which is her own; and thus, none but the truly
penitent are saved.
What! do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you,
nay! Not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God.
And thus God bringeth about his great and eternal purposes, which
were prepared from the foundation of the world. And thus cometh
about the salvation and the redemption of men, and also their
destruction and misery;
Therefore, O my son, whosoever will come, may come, and partake of
the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come, the same is
not compelled to come; but in the last day, it shall be restored
unto him, according to his deeds. [48]
Summarizing the foregoing we have the following as the result: The
effect of Adam's transgression was to destroy the harmony of things
in this world. As a consequence of his fall man is banished from the
presence of God--a spiritual death takes place and man becomes sensual,
devilish, unholy, is cursed, we say, with a strong inclination to
sinfulness. Man is also made subject to a temporal death, a separation
of the spirit and body. Much might have been gained by this union of
his spirit with his body of flesh and bone could it have been immortal,
but that is now lost, by this temporal death, this separation of
spirit and body. These conditions would have remained eternally fixed
as the result of the operation of law--inexorable law, called "the
justice of God," admitting of nothing else; for the law was given to
eternal beings and by them violated, and man is left in the grasp of
eternal justice, with all its consequences upon his head and the head
of his progeny. And the justice of the law admitted the conditions,
admitted that the penalties affixed should be effective, but this is
justice--stern, unrelenting justice; justice untempered by mercy.
But mercy must in some way be made to reach man, yet in a way also
that will not destroy justice; for justice must be maintained, else
all is confusion--ruin. If justice be destroyed--if justice be not
maintained--. "God will cease to be God." Hence mercy may not be
introduced into the divine economy of this world without a vindication
of the broken law by some means or other, for divine laws as well as
human ones are mere nullities if their penalties be not in force.
The penalty of the law then, transgressed by Adam, must be executed,
or else an adequate atonement must be made for man's transgression.
This the work of the Christ. He makes the atonement. He comes to earth
and assumes responsibility for this transgression of law, and gathers
up into his own soul all the suffering due to the transgression of
the law by Adam. All the suffering due to individual transgression of
law--the direct consequences of the original transgression--from Adam
to the end of the world. The burden of us all is laid upon him. He
will bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. He will be wounded for our
transgressions, and be bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of
our peace will be upon him; on him is laid the iniquity of us all; by
his stripes shall we be healed. [49] That is to say, having gathered
into himself all the suffering and sorrows due to all the sinning that
shall be in the world, he is able to dictate the terms upon which man
may lay hold of mercy--by which mercy may heal his wounds--and these
terms he names in the conditions of the gospel, the acceptance of which
brings complete redemption. The Christ brings to pass the resurrection
of the dead. The spirit and the body are eternally re-united; the
temporal death--one of the effects of Adam's trangression--is overcome.
There is no more physical death; the "soul" [50]--the eternally united
spirit and body are now to be immortal as spirit alone before was
immortal. The man so immortal is brought back into the presence of God,
and if he has accepted the terms of the gospel by which he is redeemed
from the effects of his own, as well as from Adam's transgression, his
spiritual death is ended, and henceforth he may be spiritually immortal
as well as physically immortal--eternally with God in an atmosphere of
righteousness--the spiritual death is overcome.
Such I make out to be the Book of Mormon doctrine of the atonement, and
the redemption of man through the gospel.
X.
__The Doctrine of Opposite Existences_._
Closely connected with the doctrine of the agency of man, the purpose
of his existence and his redemption from the fallen state, is what I
shall call the Book of Mormon doctrine of "opposite existences," what
the scholastics would call "antinomies." The doctrine as stated in
the Book of Mormon--the time of its publication--1830--remembered,
especially when taken in connection with the consequences it supposes
in the event of abolishing the existence of evil, is strikingly
original and philosophically profound; and reaches a depth of thought
beyond all that could be imagined as possible with Joseph Smith or any
of those associated with him in bringing forth the Book of Mormon.
The statement of the doctrine in question occurs in a discourse of
Lehi's on the subject of the atonement. The aged prophet represents
happiness or misery as growing out of the acceptance or rejection of
the atonement of the Christ, and adds that the misery consequent upon
its rejection is in opposition to the happiness which is affixed to its
acceptance:
For it must needs be [he continues] that there is an opposition
in all things. If [it were] not so * * * righteousness could not
be brought to pass; neither wickedness; neither holiness nor
misery; neither good nor bad. Wherefore [that is, if this fact
of opposites did not exist] all things must needs be a compound
in one; wherefore, if it [the sum of things] should be one body,
it must needs remain as dead, having no life, neither death, nor
corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense
nor insensibility. Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a
thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the
end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing [i. e., the absence of
opposite existences which Lehi is supposing] must needs destroy the
wisdom of God, and his eternal purposes; and also the power, and
the mercy, and the justice of God. [51]
The inspired man even goes beyond this, and makes existences themselves
depend upon this law of opposites:
And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no
sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is
no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness, there is no
happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness, there
be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is
no God. And if there is no God, we are not, neither the earth: for
there could have been no creation of things; neither to act nor to
be acted upon, wherefore, all things must have vanished away. [52]
This may be regarded as a very bold setting forth of the doctrine of
antinomies, and yet I think the logic of it, and the inevitableness of
the conclusion unassailable. In his work, "Origin and Development of
Religious Beliefs" S. Baring-Gould says:
The world presents us with a picture of unity and distinction;
unity without uniformity, and distinction without antagonism. * * *
Everywhere, around us and within us, we see that radical antinomy.
The whole astronomic order resolves itself into attraction and
repulsion--a centripetal and a centrifugal force; the chemical
order into the antinomy of positive and negative electricity,
decomposing substances and recomposing them. The whole visible
universe presents the antinomy of light and darkness, movement and
repose, force and matter, heat and cold, the one and the multiple.
The order of life is resumed in the antinomy of the individual
and the species, the particular and the general; the order of our
sentiments in that of happiness and sorrow, pleasure and pain; that
of our conceptions in the antinomy of the ideal and the real; that
of our will in the conditions of activity and passivity. [53]
The existence of evil in the world has ever been a vexed problem
for both theologians and philosophers, and has led to the wildest
speculations imaginable. It will be sufficient here, however, if I
note the recognition by high authority of the difficulties involved in
the problem. Of those who have felt and expressed these difficulties,
I know of no one who has done so in better terms than Henry L. Mansel
in his contribution to the celebrated course of "Bampton Lecturers,"
in "The Limits of Religious Thought" (1858), in the course of which he
says:
The real riddle of existence--the problem which confounds all
philosophy, aye, and all religion, too, so far as religion is a
thing of man's reason, is the fact that evil exists at all; not
that it exists for a longer or a shorter duration. Is not God
infinitely wise and holy and powerful now? and does not sin exist
along with that infinite holiness and wisdom and power? Is God to
become more holy, more wise, more powerful hereafter; and must evil
be annihilated to make room for his perfections to expand? Does the
infinity of his eternal nature ebb and flow with every increase
or diminution in the sum of human guilt and misery? Against this
immovable barrier of the existence of evil, the waves of philosophy
have dashed themselves unceasingly since the birthday of human
thought, and have retired broken and powerless, without displacing
the minutest fragment of the stubborn rock, without softening one
feature of its dark and rugged surface. [54]
This writer then proceeds by plain implication to make it clear
that religion no more than philosophy has solved the problem of the
existence of evil:
But this mystery [i. e., the existence of evil], vast and
inscrutable as it is, is but one aspect of a more general
problem; it is but the moral form of the ever-recurring secret
of the Infinite. How the Infinite and the finite, in any form of
antagonism or other relation, can exist together; how infinite
power can coexist with finite activity; how infinite wisdom can
coexist with finite contingency; how infinite goodnesss can coexist
with finite evil; how the Infinite can exist in any manner without
exhausting the universe of reality--this is the riddle which
Infinite Wisdom alone can solve, the problem whose very conception
belongs only to that Universal Knowledge which fills and embraces
the Universe of Being. [55]
In the presence of these reflections it cannot be doubted, then, that
the existence of moral evil is one of the world's serious difficulties;
and any solution which the Book of Mormon may give of it that is really
helpful, will be a valuable contribution to the world's enlightenment,
a real revelation--a ray of light from the "inner fact of things." Let
us consider if it does this.
In view of the utterances of the Book of Mormon already quoted I am
justified in saying that evil as well as good is among the eternal
things. Its existence did not begin with its appearance on our earth.
Evil existed even in heaven; for Lucifer and many other spirits sinned
there; "rebelled against heaven's matchless King," waged war, and were
thrust out into the earth for their transgression. [56]
Evil is not a created quality. [57] It has always existed as the
back ground of good. It is as eternal as goodnesss; it is as eternal
as law; it is as eternal as the agency of intelligence. Sin, which
is evil active, is transgression of law; [58] and so long as the
agency of intelligences and law have existed, the possibility of the
transgression of law has existed; and as the agency of intelligences
and law have eternally existed, so, too, evil has existed eternally,
either potentially or active and will always so exist.
Evil may not be referred to God for its origin. He is not its creator,
it is one of those independent existences that is _uncreate_, and
stands in the category of qualities of eternal things. While not
prepared to accept the doctrine of some philosophers that "good and
evil are two sides of one thing." [59] I am prepared to believe
that evil is a necessary antithesis to good, and essential to the
realization of the harmony of the universe. "The good cannot exist
without the antithesis of the evil--the foil on which it produces
itself and becomes known." [60] As remarked by Orlando J. Smith, "Evil
exists in the balance of natural forces. * * * * * * It is also the
background of good, the incentive to good, and the trial of good,
without which good could not be. As the virtue of courage could not
exist without the evil of danger, and as the virtue of sympathy could
not exist without the evil of suffering, so no other virtue could
exist without its corresponding evil. In a world without evil--if such
a world be really conceivable, all men would have perfect health,
perfect intelligence, and perfect morals. No one could gain or impart
information, each one's cup of knowledge being full. The temperature
would stand forever at seventy degrees, both heat and cold being
evil. There could be no progress, since progress is the _overcoming
of evil_. A world without evil would be as toil without exertion, as
light without darkness, as a battle with no antagonist. It would be a
world without meaning." [61] Or, as Lehi puts it, in still stronger
terms--after describing what conditions would be without the existence
of opposites:--
Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore,
if it [i. e. the sum of things] should be one body [i. e.,
of one character--so called good without evil] it must needs
remain as dead, having no life, neither death, nor corruption,
nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor
insensibility. Wherefore, it [the sum of things] must needs have
been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been
no purpose in the end of its creation. Wherefore, this thing [the
absence of opposites] must needs destroy the wisdom of God, and
his eternal purposes; and also, the power, and the mercy, and the
justice of God. [62]
As there can be no good without the antinomy of evil, so there can be
no evil without its antinomy, or antithesis--good. The existence of one
implies the existence of the other; and, conversely, the non-existence
of the latter would imply the non-existence of the former. It is from
this basis that Lehi reached the conclusion that either his doctrine of
antinomies, or the existence of opposites, is true, or else there are
no existences. That is to say--to use his own words--
If ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no
sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is
no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness, there be no
happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness, there
be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not, there is
no God, and if there is no God, we are not, neither the earth; for
there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to
be acted upon: wherefore, all things must have vanished away. [63]
But as things have not vanished away, as there are real existences,
the whole series of things for which he contends are verities. "For
there is a God," he declares, "and he hath created all things, both the
heavens and the earth, and all things that in them is; both things to
act, and things to be acted upon." [64]
After arriving at this conclusion, Lehi, proceeding from the general to
the particular, deals with the introduction of this universal antinomy
into our world as follows:
To bring about his [God's] eternal purposes in the end of man,
after he had created our first parents * * * it must needs be that
there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition
to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter;
Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for
himself. Wherefore man could not act for himself, save it should
be that he was enticed by the one or the other. [65] And I, Lehi,
according to the things which I have read, must needs suppose that
an angel of God, according to that which is written, had fallen
from heaven; wherefore he became a devil, having sought that which
was evil before God. And because he had fallen from heaven, and
had become miserable forever, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old
serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies; wherefore
he said, Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but
ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And after Adam and Eve
had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the
garden of Eden, to till the earth. And they have brought forth
children; yea, even the family of all the earth.
Then follows Lehi's treatise upon the reason for the fall, the purpose
of man's existence, which have already been noticed.
Summary of the Foregoing Doctrines.
This then is the order of things--(though in this summary the order
in which the various doctrines have been presented is not strictly
followed, but one more in harmony with the proper order of the related
things; but which order could not well be set forth until the foregoing
discussion of them was had):--
1. The intelligent "Ego" in man, which we have called an
"Intelligence," meaning, however, not a quality but the "Ego" itself,
is an eternal entity; uncreate and uncreatable--an essential, a
necessary, self-existent being.
2. These "Intelligences" the begotten of God, spirits; so that men are
of the same race with God, are of the same "essence" or "substance,"
and are the sons of God by virtue of an actual relationship.
3. There came a time in the course of the existence of these spiritual
personages when an earth-existence, a union of the spiritual personage
with a body of flesh and bone, became necessary for his further
development, for his enlargement; an existence where good and evil were
in actual conflict, where the mighty and perhaps awful lessons which
such conditions have to teach could be learned.
4. There are eternal opposites in existences, light--darkness;
joy--sorrow; pleasure--pain; sweet--bitter; good--evil; and so
following. Evil is an eternal existence, the necessary co-relative of
the good, uncreate and may not be referred to God for its origin.
5. The spirits of men came to earth primarily to obtain bodies through
which their spirits may act through all eternity. They came to effect a
union of spirit and element essential to all their future development
and their joy and their glory; [66] secondly they came to obtain such
experiences as this earth-life has to give--to be taught by the things
which they suffer; learning the lessons that sorrow and sin and death
have to teach, finding both the strength and weakness of their own
natures--proving the fidelity, valor and honor of their own spirits;
making proof of their worthiness for that exceeding great and eternal
weight of glory which God has designed for those who overcome and in
all things prove faithful.
6. To lead the way in this great work, one sufficiently developed for
such a task--Adam--is appointed to come to earth to open the series
of dispensations designed of God for man in his earth-probation. He
introduced those changes in the harmony of things necessary to the
accomplishment of the purposes of God in the earth-life of man--he fell
that man might be; and not only "be," but have that being, under the
very conditions that have since prevailed.
7. Evil was introduced into this world through the transgression of
Adam, and man falls under the censure of eternal and inexorable justice.
8. Through the Atonement of Christ, however, man is freed from the
effects of Adam's trangression. The resurrection redeems him from
the temporal death--the separation of the spirit and body, and he is
brought back into the presence of God.
9. Through the Atonement of Christ mercy also has been brought into
the world's moral economy; and, as well as justice, operates upon
man. God's righteous law has been given to man. Man is a free moral
agent and may choose to obey the law, or may choose to follow after
wickedness. If he choose the latter, he falls under the justice of the
law.
10. Through the Atonement the privilege of repentance is granted,
and mercy claims the truly penitent, rescuing him from the otherwise
inexhorable claims of the law, and setting him in the way of salvation
through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.
Such, in brief is the outline of the gospel of Christ in the Book of
Mormon so far as it relates to the nature and eternal existence of
man, the purpose of his earth-existence, the fall, the atonement, the
existence of good and evil, and the development that shall come of
contact with these forces.
In concluding this chapter, apart from the matter of originality in
the doctrines set forth, which originality, be it remembered is one of
the evidences here sought to be established as a sort of proof for the
divinity of the book, I desire to call attention to another argument
which these doctrines are capable of bearing; namely the nature of
the doctrines themselves, the order in which they are set forth, and
their deep philosophical character; and to the candid reader I submit
this question: Was the unaided native intelligence of Joseph Smith, or
the intelligence or learning of any of those associated with him in
bringing forth the Book of Mormon, equal to the task of formulating
the principles of moral philosophy and theology that are found in that
book and discussed in this chapter? Was the intelligence or learning of
Solomon Spaulding, or any other person to whom the origin of the book
is ascribed, equal to such a task? There can be but one answer to that
question, and the nature of it is obvious.
Beyond controversy neither the native intelligence nor learning of
Joseph Smith can possibly be regarded as equal to such a performance
as bringing forth the knowledge which the Book of Mormon imparts upon
these profound subjects; nor can the intelligence or learning of those
who assisted him in translating the book be regarded as sufficient
for such a task. Nor was the intelligence and learning of any one
to whom the origin of the book has ever been ascribed equal to such
an achievement. Indeed the book sounds depths on these subjects not
only beyond the intelligence and learning of this small group of men
referred to, but beyond the intelligence and learning of the age
itself in which it came forth. Therefore it is useless to ascribe
the knowledge it imparts on these subjects to human intelligence or
learning at all. What is said by it on these subjects, so full of
interest to mankind, is a word truly from the "inner fact of things"--a
message written by ancient prophets of America inspired of God to bear
witness to the truth of these great things which it most concerns man
to know.
Footnotes
1. Genesis iii.
2. I. Cor. xv: 21, 22; Romans v: 12-17.
3. Westminster Confession, chapter iv--of Creation--Section i.
4. In proof of this last declaration the expounder cites Col. i: 16:
"All things were created by him [Christ] and for him."
Also Proverbs xvi: 4: 'The Lord hath made all things for himself; yea,
even the wicked for the day of evil.'
Also Rev. iv: 11: "For thou [the Lord] hast created all things, and
for thy pleasure they are and were created;" and Rom. xi: 36: "For of
him, and through him, and to him are all things." See Commentary on
the "Confession of Faith," with questions for theological students and
Bible classes, by the Reverend A. A. Hodge, D. D., Chapter iv. The
reading of the passages will convince any one that if this is all the
scripture proof that may be adduced in the way of an explanation of the
purposes of God in creation, that what I have said in the text, that
there is no direct, explicit, and adequate statement of the object of
man's existence in holy writ is sufficiently vindicated.
5. Commentary on the Confession (Hodge), chapter iv.
6. Douay Catechism, chapter iii.
7. Ibid.
8. Gen. ii: 25.
9. Ibid iii: 7.
10. "Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was in the
transgression."--Tim. ii: 14.
11. Catholic Belief, p. 6. (Joseph Faa Di Bruno is the author.)
12. Catholic Belief, p. 330.
13. Douay Catechism, p. 13.
14. Buck's Theological Dictionary, p. 182.
15. Old Testament History (William Smith, LL. D.), chapter ii.
16. Westminster Confession, chapter vi, section 1.
17. Commentary on the Confession of Faith (A. A. Hodge), pp. 105-108.
18. Paine's Theological Works, "Age of Reason," p. 12.
19. See Ingersoll's Lectures, "Liberty of Man, Woman and Child," where
the great orator, contrasts the story of the Fall given in the Bible
with that of Brahma in the Hindoo mythology, and extravagantly praises
the latter to the disparagement of the former.
20. See "A Short View of Great Questions" (Orlando J. Smith), chapter
10; also his work on "Eternalism."
21. John viii: 58.
22. John xvii.
23. Job xxxiii: 4-7.
24. Revelation xii.
25. Jude vi.
26. Jeremiah i: 5.
27. Heb. xii.
28. Those who wish to extend their investigation on the subject are
referred to the author's work on "The Gospel," especially the section
of Man's Relationship to Deity, found in both the second and third
edition.
29. Ether iii.
30. John i: 2-14.
31. Doc. & Cov., section xciii.
32. I use the term "begotten" instead of "create" advisedly. I do
not believe the spirit of man is "created" by God; I believe it is
"begotten" of him, and in addition to its own native, underived
inherent qualities, partakes also somewhat of the qualities or nature
of him who begets it, hence an intelligence begotten of a spirit is a
son of God by being begotten by a divine parent; by the nature of it
also, since somewhat of the nature of the parent has been imparted to
it. The distinction between a "created" thing and a being begotten is
thus very clearly set forth by the Christian Father Athanasius: Let it
be repeated that a created thing is external to the nature of the being
who creates; but a generation (a begetting, as a Father begets a son)
is the proper offspring of the nature. (Footnote, Shedd's "History of
Christian Doctrine," Vol. I, p. 322.)
33. Luke iii: 38.
34. Alma xiii: 9.
35. Alma xi.
36. Alma xi: 9.
37. Rev. viii: 80. What means the scripture here: "The Lamb slain from
the foundations of the world"--if it does not mean that the Savior's
mission and work of atonement, and the mode of it, were known before
the foundation of the world?
38. "Hedonism is the form of eudemonism that regards pleasure (including
avoidance of pain) as the only conceivable object in life, and teaches
that as between the lower pleasures of sense and the higher enjoyments
of reason, or satisfied self-respect, there is no difference except
in degree, duration, and hedonic value of the experience, there being
in strictness, no such thing as ethical or moral value."--Standard
Dictionary.
39. In Cicero's description of the Epicurean conception of the gods
he says: "That which is truly happy cannot be burdened with any
labor itself, nor can it impose any labor on another, nor can it be
influenced by resentment or favor, because things which are liable to
such failings must be weak and frail. * * * Their life [i. e., of the
gods] is most happy and the most abounding with all kinds of blessings
which can be conceived. They do nothing. They are embarrassed with no
business; nor do they perform any work. They rejoice in the possession
of their own wisdom and virtue. They are satisfied that they shall ever
enjoy the fulness of eternal pleasure. * * * Nothing can be happy that
is not at ease." (Tusculan Disputations, The Nature of the Gods.)
40. II. Nephi ii: 23.
41. I. John iii: 4.
42. Pearl of Great Price, Book of Moses, ch. i: 39.
43. Or "the soul;" for, in the revelations of God in this last
dispensation, the spirit and the body are called the "soul."
"Through the redemption which is made for you is brought to pass the
resurrection from the dead. And the spirit and the body is the soul of
man. And the resurrection from the dead is the redemption of the soul."
(Doc. & Cov. Sec. 88: 14-16.)
44. Alma xxix: 4.
45. II. Nephi. ii: 27.
46. Hibbert Journal, April, 1906, p. 656.
47. Chapter iv.
48. Alma 42. The same subject is treated in II. Nephi ii.
49. Isaiah liii.
50. Doc. & Cov., Sec. xxxviii: 15.
51. II. Nephi ii. It is a pleasure to note that this process of
reasoning, remarkable as it is, and startling as it is in its
conclusion, is in harmony with modern thought. Mr. Lester F. Ward,
whose works I have already quoted in this chapter, by a closely
analogous order of reasoning, reaches the same conclusion. This the
passage: "The pleasure of 'doing good' is among the most delicious
of which the human faculties are capable, and becomes the permanent
stimulus to thousands of worthy lives. It is usually looked upon as
the highest of all motives, and by some as the ultimate goal toward
which all action should aspire. It should first be observed that the
very act of doing good presupposes evil, i. e., pain. Doing good is
necessarily either increasing pleasure or diminishing pain. Now, if all
devoted themselves to doing good, it is maintained that the sufferings
of the world would be chiefly abolished. Admitting that there are
some evils that no human efforts could remove, and supposing that by
united altruism all removable evils were done away, there would be
nothing left for altruists to do. By their own acts they would have
deprived themselves of a calling. They must be miserable since the
only enjoyment they deemed worthy of experiencing could be no longer
possible, and this suffering from ennui would be among those which
lie beyond human power to alleviate. An altruistic act would then
alone consist in inflicting pain on one's self for the sole purpose
of affording others an opportunity to derive pleasure from the act of
relieving it. I do not put the matter in this light for the purpose
of discouraging altruism, but simply to show how short sighted most
ethical reasoning is."
52. II. Nephi ii.
53. "Origin and Development of Religious Belief," Vol. II., pp. 22, 23.
54. Limits of Religious Thought, Mansel, p. 197.
55. Ibid. pp. 197-8.
56. See Rev. xii: 7. Jude 6.
57. Lest some text-proofer should retort upon me and cite the words
of Isaiah--"I make peace and create evil"--the only text of scripture
ascribing the creation of evil to God--I will anticipate so far as to
say that it is quite generally agreed that no reference is made in
the words of Isaiah to "moral evil;" but to such evils as may come
as judgments upon people for their correction, such as famine or
tempest or war; such an "evil" as would stand in natural antithesis to
"peace," which word precedes, "I create evil," in the text--"I make
peace and create"--the opposite to peace, "The evil of afflictions
and punishments, but not the evil of sin" (Catholic Comment on Isaiah
45:7). Meantime we have the clearest scriptural evidence that moral
evil is not a product of God's: "Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither
tempteth he any man." That is to say, God has nothing to do with the
creation of moral evil; "But every man is tempted when he is drawn
away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth
death." (James i: 13-15). "The evil and the good are necessary
co-relatives." (Sir Oliver Lodge in Hibbert Journal, April, 1906, p.
657.)
58. I. John iii: 4.
59. Eternalism, Orlando J. Smith, p. 205-6.
60. Scotus Erigena, quoted by Neander, "Hist. Christian Religion and
Church," Vol. III. p. 465.
61. Eternalism, pp. 30, 31.
62. II. Nephi ii: 11.
63. II. Nephi ii: 13.
64. Ibid. ii: 14.
65. On such a proposition Dr. Jacob Cooper, of Rutgers College, at
the head of an article on "Theodicy" (the justification of the divine
providence by the attempt to reconcile the existence of evil with the
goodnesss and sovereignty of God), says (August, 1903), "There must be
an alternative to any line of conduct, in order to give it a moral
quality. We have to deal with, not an imaginary, but a real world; not
with a state of things wholly different from those by which character
is developed. If there are to be such qualities as righteousness,
virtue, merit, as the result of good action, there must be a condition
by which these things are possible. And this can only be where there
is an alternative which may be embraced by a free choice. If the
work of man on earth is to build up character, if his experience is
disciplinary, by which he constantly becomes better fitted for greater
good and a wider sphere of action, then he must have the responsibility
of choosing for himself a course different from one which appeals to
the lower qualities in his nature."
66. Doc. & Cov., Sec. xciii: 33, 35.
CHAPTER XLI.
INTERNAL EVIDENCES,--THE EVIDENCE OF PROPHECY.
I have already, in volume one of the New Witnesses, called attention
to the value of fulfilled prophecies as evidence of a prophet's being
divinely commissioned with a message to the world. [1] It is there
pointed out that fulfilled prophecy has ever been regarded as a species
of miracle; that the Lord himself refers to it as a test by which true
prophets may be distinguished from false ones; that, therefore, the
power to foresee and foretell future events is a power that God has
reserved to himself and to those whom he especially inspires--hence
the power of prophecy is the surest sign of divine inspiration--of
divine authority. [2] Consequently it is only necessary here to say that
such evidence is equally strong in support of a book claiming a divine
origin; provided, of course, that it contains prophecies by which it
may be tested. The Book of Mormon contains such prophecies. Here it
is necessary to explain, however, that many of the prophetic parts of
the Book of Mormon are not available as such a test, for the reason
that very many of its prophecies relate to matters that had their
fulfillment in ancient times. For example: the Jaredites, who preceded
the Nephites in occupying North America, were told by their prophets
that except they repented the Lord would bring another people, as he
had their fathers, to occupy the land in their stead. The Jaredites
did not repent; and in due time the colony of Lehi was brought to
America much as the original Jaredite colony had been; and thus the
prophecy was fulfilled; but such is the nature of the prophecy and its
fulfillment that it affords us no means by which we can test the divine
inspiration of the book containing it, the prediction and the account
of its fulfillment being found within the book itself; and we are in
possession of no outside means independent of the Book of Mormon by
which to test this prophecy or its fulfillment. Of like nature is the
prediction that Ether made to Coriantumr, to the effect that except he
repented his people should be destroyed and he alone should survive
them, but only to see another people come upon the goodly land to
possess it. [3] All this came to pass in due time [4]--since Coriantumr
did not repent; but this affords us no means by which we may test the
prophetic claims of the book containing such a prophecy, because both
prophecy and the account of its fulfillment are within the book itself.
So also with the prediction concerning the advent of the Messiah on
the American continent; the signs at his birth and death and his
ministry, all of which events were foretold in great clearness to the
Nephites; but these like the other prophecies alluded to, are of such
a nature that they afford us no means of testing the prophetic claims
of the book. Only those prophecies in the Book of Mormon which have
had their fulfillment since the book was published, or that are yet to
be fulfilled, are available--at least they are the only ones that will
appeal to unbelievers--as evidence of the book's claims to a divine
authenticity. Of these, fortunately, there are enough for a test such
as is proposed; a test, which as it is among the most crucial that
can be applied, so also is it among the most valuable of the internal
evidences of the book's divine origin.
Here the reader should be reminded [5] that several conditions
should exist respecting prophecies to be used as evidence of divine
inspiration either in book or prophet: first, that prediction antedates
the events which fulfill it; second, that the events must be of a
nature that no merely human foresight, or judgment, unaided by divine
inspiration or revelation, could have foretold them; third, the events
that fulfill the prophecy must be of a nature that they cannot be
brought about by the natural powers of the prophet himself, or agencies
under his control. Such conditions unquestionably prevail in respect of
all the prophecies here adduced in evidence.
I begin by reference to two prophetic passages in which the Holy
Ghost must necessarily be the agency through which the fulfillment is
realized. I start with these because it must be evident that if the
predictions are fulfilled through the agency of the Holy Ghost there
can be no deception charged or doubt remain either of the genuineness
of the prophecies or of the reality of their fulfillment.
I.
_A Testimony Shall be Given by the Holy Ghost._
First, then, the prophecy that a testimony to the truth of the Book
of Mormon shall be given by the Holy Ghost. In closing up the Nephite
record which had been given into his charge by his father Mormon,
Moroni in a final word to those to whom the work in after ages would
come, says:
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye
would ask God, the eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these
things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with
real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of
them unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost; and by the power of
the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. [6]
I do not hesitate to pronounce this one of the boldest prophecies of
Holy Writ, and certainly one which no imposter would dare place in
a book he was palming off upon the world as a revelation from God,
since it affords such immediate means of testing the truth of his
pretentions. It is the same character of test as that boldly supplied
by the Son of God himself for testing the truth of the whole Christian
scheme when he said:
My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do
his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or
whether I speak of myself. [7]
There can be no question as to the prophetic character of the passage
from the Book of Mormon--When you receive this record, ask God in
the name of Christ, if it be true, and he will manifest the truth of
it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost. The only question to be
considered after this is, has the prophecy of a promised testimony
been fulfilled. Hundreds of thousands are ready to answer in the
affirmative; scores of thousands who have died in the faith have left
on record their testimony that the prophecy has been fulfilled in their
experience; and back of the testimony of these thousands is their
life of sacrifice, toil, suffering; together with the contumely and
persecution which they have endured for that testimony. Some of the
witnesses to the fulfillment of this prophecy have even sealed their
testimony with their blood--can evidence of a higher or more solemn
character be pointed to in attestation of any truth? [8]
In passing it may be well to call attention to the fact that the Book
of Mormon in this prophetic promise that its truth shall be made known
by the power of the Holy Ghost, as also its assertion "that by the
power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things"--hits
upon a great general, spiritual truth, viz., that the Holy Ghost is
God's especial witness of revealed truth. It was the Holy Ghost in its
beautiful sign of a dove that bore witness to John that the peasant
Nazarene was indeed the Christ. [9] Paul says that "no man speaking by
the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost." [10] John represents Jesus as
saying, "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from
the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father,
he shall testify of me." [11] Again, the Comforter is called the very
"Spirit of Truth," and of it Jesus says: "The Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you
all things." [12] Also: "When the Spirit of Truth [the Holy Ghost] is
come, he will guide you into all truth." [13] And so one might continue
to multiply passages to the same effect, but enough is here set, down
to establish the point suggested, viz., that the Book of Mormon hits
upon a very beautiful and universal principle to establish its own
truth by a Divine Witness, viz., the Holy Ghost. Observe also that this
great doctrine is not introduced by way of argument nor as a deduction.
It is mentioned, one might say, in a purely incidental manner. Nothing
especially is made of it by Moroni who sets it down. No appeal is made
to its strength or reasonableness. One feels that it is the statement
of a great truth purely as a matter of fact that has been verified in
the experience of Moroni, without any special consciousness of how it
interlocks with and is supported by all the scriptures that treat of
the same subject. On the theory of the Book of Mormon not being what it
claims to be, but regarding it for a moment as the work of "imposters,"
I ask the upholders of that theory this question: How comes it that in
speaking of the chief source of evidence for its truth, the "imposters"
hit upon this universal principle by which revealed truths can be
known? And, indeed, desiring to cover the whole subject involved in
this prophetic promise of a Divine Witness to the truth of the Book of
Mormon, I ask how dare they promise a Divine Witness to an "imposture"
at all?
II.
_"They Shall Have the Gift and Power of the Holy Ghost_."
The second prophecy to which reference has been made, and which must
necessarily be filled through the agency of the Holy Spirit, was
given under these circumstances: The Lord made it known to the first
Nephi that many precious truths of the gospel would be subverted by
the wickedness of men-made churches in the last days, but the Lord
gives a promise that he would manifest himself unto the descendants
of Nephi, and that they should write many things which he, the Lord,
would minister unto them. Things which would be plain and precious:
"And after thy seed shall be destroyed and dwindle in unbelief," said
the Lord, "behold these things shall be hid up to come forth unto
the Gentiles by the gift and power of the Lamb; and in them shall be
written my gospel, saith the Lamb, and my rock and my salvation:"--
And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that
day, for they shall have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. [14]
In the presence of this prophecy I stand perplexed, not however for
want of material to prove the prophecy true. A volume might be compiled
of instances from the experiences of Elders who have sought to bring
forth the Zion of God in the last days, who have clearly worked under
the power and influence of the Holy Ghost; but this is out of the
question here. All that can be done is to select instances of a typical
character that will illustrate what is meant by the prophecy, and also
prove its fulfillment. I shall select these quite at random, beginning
with some related by the late President Wilford Woodruff, describing
the circumstances under which he first heard of Mormonism, 1833.
The whisperings of the Spirit of the Lord for a space of three
years taught me that the Lord was about to set up his Church and
Kingdom in the earth in the last days, in fulfillment of promises
made by ancient prophets, and apostles, who spoke as they were
moved upon by the inspiration of Almighty God. While in this state
of mind I went with my brother Azmon to Richland, Oswego county,
New York. We bought a farm and commenced business. In December,
1833, two Mormon Elders, viz., Ezra Pulsipher and Elijah Cheney,
came into our town and stopped at our house. Elder Pulsipher said
he was commanded by the spirit of the Lord to go into the north
country, and he and Elder Cheney had walked from Favins, via
Syracuse, nearly sixty miles, through deep snows, and our house was
the first place he felt impelled to stop at. He appointed a meeting
at the school house which I attended, and on hearing him preach I
felt that his sermon was the first gospel sermon I had ever heard
in my life. I invited these Elders home and spent the night in
conversation and in reading the Book of Mormon. I was thoroughly
convinced it was a true record of the word of God. My brother Azmon
and myself offered ourselves for baptism, and on the thirty-first
day of December, 1833, Elder Pulsipher went with us to the creek
and baptized us.
The circumstances under which he was called to the ministry he gives as
follows:
I was still holding the office of a Teacher, and knowing for myself
that the fulness of the Gospel of Christ, which God had revealed
to Joseph Smith, was true, I had a great desire to preach it to
the inhabitants of the earth, but as a Teacher I had no authority
to preach the gospel to the world. I went into the forest near
Lyman Wight's [in Daviess county, Missouri, to which place Brother
Woodruff had meantime removed] one Sunday morning, aside from the
abodes of men, and made my desire known unto the Lord. I prayed
that the Lord would open my way and give me the privilege of
preaching the gospel. I did not make my request expecting any honor
from man, for I knew that the preaching of the gospel was attended
with hard labor and persecution. While I was praying, the Spirit
of the Lord rested upon me, and testified to me that my prayer was
heard, and that my request would be granted. I arose to my feet
and walked some three hundred yards into a broad road, rejoicing.
As I came into the road I saw Judge Elias Higbee standing before
me. As I walked up to him he said, "Wilford, the Lord has revealed
to me that it is your duty to go into the vineyard of the Lord and
preach the gospel." I told him if that was the will of the Lord I
was ready to go. I did not tell him that I had been praying for
that privilege. I had been boarding at Lyman Wight's with Judge
Higbee for months, and it was the first time he had ever named such
a thing to me.
Soon after this Elder Woodruff was ordained a Priest, and sent on a
mission to Arkansas and Tennessee.
During the ministry of Elder Woodruff in England, after he had become
an Apostle in the Church, he records the following item of his
experience, which was published by him in a little work called "Leaves
from My Journal:"
March 1st, 1840, was my birthday [anniversary], when I was
thirty-three years of age. It being Sunday, I preached twice
through the day to a large assembly in the City Hall, in the town
of Hanley, and administered the sacrament unto the Saints. In
the evening I again met with a large assembly of the Saints and
strangers, and while singing the first hymn the Spirit of the
Lord rested upon me, and the voice of God said to me: "This is
the last meeting that you will hold with people for many days."
I was astonished at this, as I had many appointments out in that
district. When I arose to speak to the people, I told them that it
was the last meeting I should hold with them for many days. They
were as much astonished as I was. At the close of the meeting four
persons came forward for baptism, and we went down into the water
and baptized them. In the morning I went in secret before the Lord,
and asked him what his will was concerning me. The answer I got
was, that I should go to the south, for the Lord had a great work
for me to perform there, as many souls were awaiting for the word
of the Lord. [15]
Obedient to the instructions of the Spirit, Elder Woodruff went south
into Herefordshire, where he "found a society called 'United Brethren,'
numbering about six hundred members and fifty preachers. They were
prepared for the reception of the Gospel, so that upon hearing Elder
Woodruff's testimony, they came forward and in thirty days he baptized
one hundred and sixty persons, forty-eight of whom were preachers,
including their presiding Elder, Thomas Kingston. Three clerks of
the Church of England were sent by their ministers to see what he
was doing, and he baptized them; also a constable who came to arrest
him." [16] Subsequently the field of labor widened and through the
blessings of God Elder Woodruff was enabled in the course of eight
months to bring into the Church over eight hundred souls, including all
of the six hundred United Brethren; also some two hundred preachers of
various denominations. [17]
Elder Woodruff also relates the following incident, among many others,
as illustrating the operations of the Spirit of the Lord upon his mind
for his bodily preservation:
In 1848, after my return to Winter Quarters from our pioneer
journey, I was appointed by the Presidency of the Church to take my
family and go to Boston to gather up the remnant of the Latter-day
Saints and lead them to the valleys of the mountains. While on my
way east I put my carriage into the yard of one of the brethren in
Indiana, and Brother Orson Hyde set his wagon by the side of mine,
and not more than two feet from it. Dominicus Carter, of Provo,
and my wife and four children were with me. My wife, one child and
I went to bed in the carriage, the rest sleeping in the house. I
had been in bed but a short time when a voice said to me: "Get
up, and move your carriage." It was not thunder, lightning nor an
earthquake, but the still, small voice of the Spirit of God--the
Holy Ghost. I told my wife I must get up and move my carriage.
She asked, "What for?" I told her I did not know, only the Spirit
told me to do it. I got up and moved my carriage several rods, and
set it by the side of the house. As I was returning to bed the
same Spirit said to me, "Go and move your mules away from that oak
tree," which was about one hundred yards, north of our carriage. I
moved them to a young hickory grove and tied them up. I then went
to bed. In thirty minutes a whirlwind caught the tree to which my
mules had been fastened, broke it off near the ground, and carried
it one hundred yards, sweeping away two fences in its course, and
laid it prostrate through that yard where my carriage stood, and
the top limbs hit my carriage as it was. In the morning I measured
the trunk of the tree which fell where my carriage had stood, and
found it five feet in diameter. It came within a foot of Brother
Hyde's wagon, but did not touch it. Thus, by obeying the revelation
of the Spirit of God to me I saved my life and the lives of my wife
and child, as well as my animals. In the morning I went on my way
rejoicing. [18]
The following is a statement from the biography of Elder Heber C.
Kimball, one of the members of the first quorum of the Twelve in this
latter-day dispensation, and afterwards for some years Counselor to
President Brigham Young, speaking of the time when he first heard the
gospel preached, in 1831:
The glorious news of a restored gospel and a living priesthood,
commissioned of and communicating with the heavens; the promise
of the Holy Ghost, with signs following the believer, as in days
of old; the wondrous declaration of angels revisiting the earth,
breaking the silence of ages, bringing messages from another
world--all this fell upon the heart of this God-fearing man, and
on the hearts of his friends and companions, like dew upon thirsty
ground. As the voice of a familiar spirit, it seemed an echo from
the far past--something they had known before. Both Heber [C.
Kimball] and Brigham [Young] received the word gladly, and were
impelled to testify of its divinity. Then the power of God fell
upon them. "On one occasion," says Heber, "Father John Young,
Brigham Young, Joseph Young and myself had come together to get up
some wood for Phineas H. Young. While we were thus engaged we were
pondering upon those things which had been told us by the Elders,
and upon the Saints gathering to Zion, when the glory of God shone
upon us, and we saw the gathering of the Saints to Zion, and the
glory that would rest upon them; and many more things connected
with the great event, such as the sufferings and persecutions that
would come upon the people of God, and the calamities and judgments
that would come upon the world." [19]
The year 1848 in Utah--the year following the advent of the pioneers
into Salt Lake Valley--was a very trying one. The people were
threatened with famine, and it was only by the exercise of the most
rigid economy and putting the people on scant rations that they could
hope to make the meager supplies of provisions last until the next
harvest. The settlers were but half clad as well as half fed, and such
clothing as they had was in tatters, and in many cases consisted of the
skins of wild animals. It was in the midst of these conditions that
Heber C. Kimball in a congregation of the saints made the following
remarkable prophecy:
It will be but a little while, brethren, before you shall have food
and raiment in abundance, and shall buy it cheaper than it can be
bought in the cities of the United States.
"I do not believe a word of it," said Elder Charles C. Rich, a member
of the Council of the Apostles; and perhaps nine-tenths of those who
had heard the astounding declaration were of the same opinion. Even
the prophet Heber himself was heard to say "that he was afraid he had
missed it this time." His biographer, however, relates the fulfillment
of the prophecy in the following passage:
The occasion for the fulfillment of this remarkable prediction
was the unexpected advent of the gold-hunters, on their way to
California. The discovery of gold in that land had set on fire, as
it were, the civilized world, and hundreds of richly laden trains
now began pouring across the continent on their way to the new
Eldorado. Salt Lake Valley became the resting-place, or "halfway
house" of the nation, and before the Saints had had time to recover
from their surprise at Heber's temerity in making such a prophecy,
the still more wonderful fulfillment was brought to their very
doors. The gold-hunters were actuated by but one desire: to reach
the Pacific Coast; the thirst for mammon having absorbed, for the
time, all other sentiments and desires. Impatient at their slow
progress, in order to lighten their loads, they threw away or "sold
for a song" the valuable merchandise with which they had stored
their wagons to cross the plains. Their choice, blooded, though
now jaded stock, they eagerly exchanged for the fresh mules and
horses of the pioneers, and bartered off, at almost any sacrifice,
dry goods, groceries, provisions, tools, clothing, etc., for the
most primitive outfits, with barely enough provisions to enable
them to reach their journey's end. Thus, as the Prophet Heber had
predicted, "States goods" were actually sold in the streets of
Great Salt Lake City cheaper than they could have been purchased in
the City of New York. [20]
It has already been pointed out that the gift of prophecy, involving as
it does the power to foresee future events, is peculiarly the power of
God's inspired servants. It is the direct influence of the Holy Ghost
upon the human mind that enables men to foretell future events. "How
be it when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come [i. e. the Holy Ghost], he
will guide you unto all truth. * * * * * * And he will show you things
to come." [21]
So that man possessed of the spirit of prophecy as this man, Elder
Heber C. Kimball was possessed of it, has, in fulfillment of God's
promise to his servants in the last days, the "gift and power of the
Holy Ghost."
The late Elder George Q. Cannon relates the following as his experience
when on a mission to the Hawaiian Islands. The company of missionaries
of which he was a member had become disheartened in their labors, but
Elder Cannon had resolved to stay there, "master the language and warn
the people of those Islands if he had to do it alone." And now his own
account of the incident:
My desire to learn to speak [the Hawaiian language] was very
strong; it was present with me night and day, and I never permitted
an opportunity of talking with the natives to pass without
improving it. I also tried to exercise faith before the Lord to
obtain the gift of talking and understanding the language. One
evening, while sitting on the mat conversing with some neighbors
who had dropped in, I felt an uncommonly great desire to understand
what they said. All at once I felt a peculiar sensation in my ears;
I jumped to my feet, with my hands at the side of my head, and
exclaimed to Elders Bigler and Keeler who sat at the table, that
I believed I had received the gift of interpretation! And it was
so. From that time forward I had but little, if any, difficulty in
understanding what the people said. I might not be able at once to
separate every word which they spoke from every other word in the
sentence; but I could tell the general meaning of the whole. This
was a great aid to me in learning to speak the language, and I felt
very thankful for this gift from the Lord. [22]
A similar instance is related by President Joseph F. Smith, also
connected with the Hawaiian mission, to which he was called in 1854.
The following is his own narrative:
I * * * was set apart * * * under the hands of Parley P. Pratt and
Orson Hyde, Parley being mouth. He declared that I should obtain a
knowledge of the Hawaiian language "by the gift of God, as well as
by study." Up to this time my schooling had been extremely limited.
My mother taught me to read and write, by the camp fires, and
subsequently by the greater luxury of the primeval tallow-candle in
the covered wagon and the old log cabin, 10x12 feet in size, when
first the soles of our feet found rest, after the weary months of
travel across the plains. When I say, therefore, that within four
months after my arrival on the Sandwich Islands--two weeks of which
time were consumed by the most severe sickness I had ever known--I
was prepared to enter upon the duties of my ministry, and did so
with a native companion, with whom I made a tour of the Island of
Maui, visiting, holding meetings, blessing children, administering
the sacrament, etc., all in the Hawaiian language, it may be
inferred that Parley's promise upon my head was literally fulfilled.
As remarked at the outset of this subdivision it would be no difficult
matter to compile a volume of incidents of such manifestations of
the spirit and power of God from the experiences of Elders of the
Church in illustration of, and in proof of, this Book of Mormon
prophetic-promise; but the foregoing must be relied upon as typical
incidents, and I shall trust to them also to indicate what the force
would be of a very large volume of such evidence, which, I am sure,
from personal experience, from observation and knowledge of our Church
annals, could be compiled.
I shall ask the reader, however, to consider in this connection,
the very great body of religious truth which is developed in the
revelations given in these latter days to the Church of Christ (chiefly
compiled in the book called The Doctrine and Covenants), in which
"Mormonism," so called, had its origin, and all of which are the result
of the inspired visions to Joseph Smith, or due to the operations of
the Holy Spirit upon the mind of that prophet. I therefore invoke this
body of doctrine as demonstrating the truth of the prophecy-promise--
Blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that
day, for they shall have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost.
I invoke in its support the chapter on "the Manner of the Prophet's
Teaching" in volume I of the New Witnesses; [23] I invoke the chapter
on "Miracles--the Evidence of Fulfilled Promises;" [24] also the
chapters on "The Evidence of Prophecy;" [25] as also the chapter on "The
Church Founded by Joseph Smith a Monument to His Inspiration;" [26]
let all this in the mind of the reader, be brought in at this point
and made part of the argument in support of the fulfillment of the
prophecy that those who seek to bring forth the Zion of God in the
last days, shall have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost; and he
will begin to see how invincibly strong the argument must be upon this
head. In addition to all this, however, I also call attention to the
evidence of inspiration that may be found in the operation of Church
leaders since the martyrdom of the first Prophet of the Church. The
evidence of inspiration in Brigham Young and his associates in the
matter of conducting that marvelous Exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois,
through a thousand miles of wilderness to the Rocky Mountains. The
evidence of Divine inspiration manifested also in the establishment of
settlements in the inter-Rocky Mountain region--which in time grew into
commonwealths of the American Union. The evident inspiration in the
policies adopted by these leaders--all essential to the preservation of
the Saints in their organized capacity--necessary to the preservation
of the Church of Christ, and now too universally recognized and
applauded to need particularization. Men assign these achievements
to the genius of Brigham Young; they establish his reputation in the
eyes of the world as a leader of men. He is recognized as among the
most remarkable men of the age, and is ranked as being among the first
Americans. But to the Saints, these achievements merely establish the
truth of one of the predictions of the Book of Mormon, viz.,
Blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that
day, for they shall have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost.
III.
_Three Witnesses Shall Behold the Book "By the Gift and Power of God_."
In the writings of the first Nephi the following prediction with
reference to Three Witnesses who should testify to the truth of the
Book of Mormon is found:
Wherefore, at that day when the book shall be delivered unto the
man of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of
the world, that the eyes of none shall behold it save it be that
Three Witnesses shall behold it, by the power of God, besides him
to whom the book shall be delivered; and they shall testify to the
truth of the book and the things therein. And there is none other
which shall view it, save it be a few, according to the will of
God, to bear testimony of his word unto the children of men. [27]
A similiar prediction is made in Ether:
And unto three shall they [the Nephite plates] be shown by the
power of God; wherefore they shall known of a surety that these
things are true. [28]
Of course I am prepared to hear it said that it would be an easy matter
for an imposter to make such a prophecy as this with reference to a
work which he was bringing forth; but would it be within the power of
an imposter to cause an angel to come from heaven and stand before
these Witnesses in the broad light of day and exhibit the Nephite
plates and the Urim and Thummim? Could he cause the glory of God more
brilliant than the light of the sun at noon-day to shine about them?
Could he cause the voice of God to be heard from the midst of the glory
saying that the work was true, the translation correct, and commanding
these witnesses to bear testimony to the world of its truth? Certainly
all this would be beyond the power of an imposter to achieve however
cunning he might be. Yet this is what the Three Witnesses declare was
done. Of course it could still be urged that the Three Witnesses were
in collusion with the Prophet, but all probabilities of that matter
have been considered at great length in volume II., chapters fourteen
to twenty-two inclusive, and the weight of evidence is against any such
theory, and therefore their testimony bears witness to the fulfillment
of the remarkable prophecy here considered.
IV.