the automobile, the airship--these and a hundred other marvelous
manifestations of scientific power, now quite common, would have been
deemed visionary and impossible in former ages. To have avowed even
a belief in them would have imperiled one's life or deprived him of
his liberty, in the days when Galileo was threatened with torture for
declaring that the earth moves, or when women, in later times were
hanged or burned as witches for nothing at all. So dangerous is human
prejudice, in its fanatical opposition to things new and strange. This,
of course, refers only to former ages and to semibenighted peoples. We
would not have done as our forefathers did! So each generation thinks.
Let us be thankful that the earth "does move," and that the mind of man
moves with it, so that perils such as confronted Galileo and others of
his class are now less likely to show their ugly features.
The Other Extreme.--But just a word of caution here. We must not rush
to the opposite extreme, and become obsessed with that ultra-practical
spirit which would make all things commonplace, not only in
manifestation, but in origin. Miracles, after all, are facts, not
fictions, and some of them have their causes far back of and beyond the
known principles of science.
Disbelief in Divine Interposition.--But there is a disposition in these
modern days to do away with everything savoring of the supernatural,
"Higher Criticism," so-called, seems to regard this as its special
mission. Some people, even if they give credence to works of wonder,
invariably refer them to ordinary causes--anything rather than
acknowledge divine interposition.
Moses and the Red Sea.--For instance, when they read of Moses parting
the waters of the Red Sea, they either deny the event in toto, or set
Moses and the miracle aside, and substitute some convulsion of nature
as the accidental cause of the mighty deliverance, when those waters,
after allowing the Israelites to pass through in safety, returned just
in time to engulf their pursuing enemies, the Egyptians. [4]
A very convenient earthquake, truly! Nothing could have been more
timely! But why could not Divine Power have done it all--done it
designedly, in the manner and with the means specified in the sacred
narrative? [5] Is God impotent in the presence of Nature--fettered by
his own creation? Alas! these learned theorists believe not in God, and
that is why they deny his works and put nature with its blind forces in
his stead.
Joshua and the Sun.--They laugh to scorn the idea of Joshua commanding
the sun to stand still, deeming it "a sin and a disgrace" that such
things should be preached and taught, and denying, of course, that the
miracle ever took place. Because, forsooth, the whole solar system
would have come crashing down into chaos, had the sun halted for one
moment in its decreed course! Yes, that might have happened, such a
calamity might have occurred--had there been no God to uphold the solar
system and administer the law for its preservation.
"The Lord Fought for Israel."--But there is a God, and he was there as
he is everywhere, by his all-protective, all-administrative power--the
God to whom Joshua prayed before uttering the sublime command: "Sun,
stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon!"
[6] "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had
avenged themselves upon their enemies; . . . . for the Lord fought for
Israel." [7]
There you have it--it was the Lord's doing. Joshua was merely the
instrument, just as Moses had been. But because such things are not
happening every day, and because doubt cannot do them, therefore are
they impossible to Faith! Such is the logic of those who scoff at the
power of Deity and deny even the miracles of the Savior.
Nothing Too Difficult for Omnipotence.--For my part, I see nothing
inconsistent in these Bible stories--nothing to justify doubt or
denial. A Power that could create the sun and moon and set them
whirling in their orbits, could stop them in their decreed course--or
stop the earth, so that sun and moon would seem to be stayed--and at
the same time uphold the universe, while this part of it remained
stationary. Of course, man could not do it; but human power is not the
measure of Omnipotence.
What Our Century Needs.--What the Twentieth Century needs, more than
anything else, is an honest belief that there is actually a God in
heaven, and that his power is superior to man's. The Great Creator has
not let out his universe, to be governed by law independently of the
Law-giver. The God of Israel is a God who answers prayer, and who works
miracles whenever the need arises and conditions warrant--works them
according to law. But He administers that law--it does not administer
him.
Greater and Lesser Laws.--Some laws are fundamental. The Almighty did
not create them; but he controls them and overrules their workings for
the welfare of his creatures. According to Joseph Smith, certain laws
were "instituted" at the beginning, as a means for human progression.
These are eternal principles whereby our great and benevolent Father
proposes to save and exalt his children, and give perpetuity to all
things necessary for their happiness and glory.
Who, having faith in a Maker of the universe, can question his power to
govern that universe, the workmanship of his hands? And if he controls
the fundamental laws--those uncreatable, self-existent principles
which are as the Constitution of Eternity, surely he can suspend the
operation of lesser laws based thereon, setting aside at will his own
enactments.
An Illustration.--Suppose a child to be lying at the point of death.
The family physician, having done his best and failed, informs the
sad-hearted parents that their little one cannot live till morning.
Medical science so decrees, in accordance with the law under which
the physician has been operating. But, bearing in mind the apostolic
injunction, "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the Elders of the
Church," [8] the parents send for the Elders. They come and pray over
the child, and the prayer of faith "saves the sick," notwithstanding
the good doctor's prognostication. A miracle? Yes, if one chooses
to call it so. In other words, the suspension of a lesser law by a
greater, the former requiring the death of the child, the latter
permitting it to live; the lower inoperative in the presence of the
higher.
Biggest Things Yet to Be.--Miracles belong to no particular time or
place. Whenever and wherever there is sufficient faith and a reasonable
demand for its exercise, Divine Power will act, and marvels will
result. "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of"
in human "philosophy," and the biggest things are yet to be. God's work
is progressive, and the miracles of the future will cause the miracles
of the past to pale.
Divine Adaptation.--Progression's highest methods cannot be employed
in dealing with undeveloped man. The All-wise adapts himself to the
conditions environing those whom he aims to uplift and glorify. "All
things are in a scale," rendering necessary a diversity of laws and
operations. Even the divine dictum, "Let there be light!" does not
represent the last word in light production. God is Light, and has only
to appear, and all darkness will flee away. When the sun rises, the
moon and stars must "hide their diminished heads." When God dawns upon
the world, not even the sun will shine.
Footnotes
1. 2 Kings 6:1-7.
2. "What are the Laws of Nature?" asks Carlyle, and continues: "To me
perhaps the rising of one from the dead were no violation of these
laws, but a confirmation, if some far deeper law, now first penetrated
into, and by spiritual force, even as the rest have all been, were
brought to bear on us with its material force."
"'But is it not the deepest law of Nature that she be constant?' cried
an illuminated class: 'Is not the machine of the universe fixt to move
by unalterable rules?' Probable enough good friends. . . . . And now of
you, too, I make the old inquiry: What those same unalterable rules,
forming the complete statute book of Nature, may possibly be?
"'They stand written in our works of science,' say you; 'in the
accumulated record of man's experience.' Was man with his experience
present at the creation, then, to see how it all went on? Have any
deepest scientific individuals yet dived down to the foundations of the
universe, and gauged everything there? Did the Maker take them into his
counsel, that they read his ground-plan of the incomprehensible All,
and can say, This stands marked therein, and no more than this? Alas,
not in any wise!" . . . .
"To the minnow, every cranny and pebble and quality and accident, of
its little native creek may have become familiar; but does the minnow
understand the ocean tides and periodic currents, the trade winds
and monsoons and moon's eclipses, by all which the condition of its
little creek is regulated, and may, from time to time (unmiraculously
enough) be quite upset and reversed? Such a minnow is man; his creek
this planet earth; his ocean the immeasurable All; his monsoons and
periodic currents the mysterious force of Providence through aeons of
aeons."--Sartor Resartus, Natural Supernaturalism, pp. 275-278.
3. Gen. 1:3.
4. "Everybody recalls how the Red Sea was rolled aside in order that
the Isaraelites under Moses might pass over safely; how the river
Jordan, a few later, was driven back, that Joshua and his army might
cross; and how Sodom and Gomorrah were overwhelmed with fire and
brimstone for their sins . . . . Geologists are now inclined to believe
that the recession of the sea might have been caused by an earthquake
pushing up a rock stratum under tremendous pressure. The water would
return in some degree upon the subsidence of the stratum. The various
miraculous events referred to occurred about the year 1500 B. C., and
there is a curious similarity between them. It now appears probable
from scientific research that these occurrences were the last of a
series of terrific earthquake disturbances that changed the entire
surface of the globe."--W. H. Ballou, D. Sc.
5. Ex. 14:21-31.
6. Joshua 10:12.
7. Ib. vv. 13, 14.
8. James 5:14.
ARTICLE THIRTY-SIX.
The Mainspring of Power.
The Moving Cause.--All power springs from faith. It is "the moving
cause of all action" and "the foundation of all righteousness." [1] God
did not create the principle of faith, but by means of it he created
the worlds, and by means of it he continues to exercise control and
dominion over them. It is the faith of Omnipotence that upholds the
universe.
A Negative Opinion.--A Christian minister, not of the orthodox school,
with whom I was conversing on the subject of faith, tried to convince
me that it was anything but an admirable quality. He even called it
contemptible, declaring that it consisted of a weak willingness to
believe--to believe anything, however improbable or absurd. In short,
it was mere credulity, nothing more.
A Spiritual Force.--When I referred to faith as a spiritual force, a
principle of power, he said I was attaching to the term a significance
that it had never borne, and for which there was no warrant. I then
reminded him of the Savior's words: "If ye have faith as a grain of
mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, 'Remove hence to yonder
place,' and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you."
[2] Whereupon he flippantly remarked: "Oh, it takes picks and shovels
to move mountains."
Picks and Shovels.--And so it does--if one has no better way of moving
them. But what about the faith necessary to handle pick and shovel?
All energy springs from faith, and whether mountains are moved by man
or by his Maker, it is faith that precedes the action and renders it
possible. Yet here was a professed minister of Christ, ignoring the
teachings of Christ, and denying what all true Christians believe--that
the smallest as well as the greatest acts of our lives spring from the
exercise of faith.
Misplaced Confidence.--In its incipient stages, faith may at times
resemble mere credulity. The untutored savage who was told by one of
the early settlers of New England, that if he planted gunpowder it
would "grow" gunpowder, believed it, not yet having learned that the
white man could lie. He therefore parted with his valuable furs, in
exchange for a small quantity of powder, and planted it, showing his
confidence in the settler's word. But of course the desired result
did not follow; for faith, to be effectual, must be rightly based,
must have a reasonable foundation. The Spirit of Truth must inspire
it. This was not the case with the poor misguided Indian. He trusted
in a falsehood, and was deceived. Still, some good came of it--he
ascertained the falsity of the settler's statement. If the planting did
not produce powder, it produced a wiser Indian.
Faith's Possibilities.--Had the red man's faith been perfect--an
intelligent, rational, heaven-inspired faith--he could have produced
gunpowder or any other commodity from the all-containing elements
around him. And that, too, without planting a seed or employing
any ordinary process of manufacture. The miracles wrought by the
Savior--his turning of water into wine, his miraculous feeding of the
multitude, his walking on the waves, healing of the sick, raising of
the dead, and other wonderful works--what were they but manifestations
of an all-powerful faith, to possess which is to have the power to
move mountains, without picks and shovels, my skeptical friend to
the contrary notwithstanding? Faith is not to confounded with blind
ignorant credulity. It is a divine energy, operating upon natural
principles and by natural processes--natural, though unknown to "the
natural man," and termed by him "supernatural."
"As a Grain of Mustard Seed."--When the Savior spoke of the faith that
moves mountains, he was not measuring the quantity of the faith by the
size of the mustard seed. Neither was it an Oriental hyperbole. Jesus
was speaking literally. Mountains had been moved before by the power of
faith; [3] then why not now? [4]
An Impelling Force.--Faith is the beating heart of the universe.
Without it nothing was ever accomplished, small or great, commonplace
or miraculous. No work ever succeeded that was not backed by confidence
in some power, human or superhuman, that impelled and pushed forward
the enterprise.
Those Who Believe.--It was not doubt that drove Columbus across the
sea; it was faith--the impelling force of the Spirit of the Lord. [5]
It was not doubt that inspired Jefferson, Franklin, and the other
patriot fathers to lay broad and deep the foundations of this mighty
republic, as a hope and a refuge for oppressed humanity. It is not
doubt that causes nations to rise and flourish, that induces great and
good men in all ages and in all climes to teach and toil and sacrifice
for the benefit of their fellows. It is faith that does such things.
Doubt only hinders what faith would achieve. The men and women who move
the world are the men and women who believe.
Mahomet and Islam.--Carlyle, in splendid phrasing, depicts the
wonderful change that came over the Arabian people when they abandoned
idolatry, the insincere worship of "sticks and stones," and became
a believing nation. "It was as a birth from darkness into light;
Arabia first became alive by means of it. A poor shepherd people
roaming unnoticed in its deserts since the creation of the world; a
hero-prophet was sent down to them with a word they could believe; see,
the unnoticed becomes world-notable, the small has become world-great;
within one century afterward Arabia is at Granada on this hand, at
Delhi on that--glancing in valor and splendor and the light of genius,
Arabia shines through long ages over a great section of the world.
Belief is great, life-giving. The history of a nation becomes fruitful,
soul-elevating, great, so soon as it believes." [6]
Achievements of Christendom.--The same philosophy, with far greater
emphasis, applies to Christendom and its glorious achievements all
down the centuries. What has caused Christian nations to flourish so
mightily? What has enabled Christianity, in spite of its errors, to
survive the wreck of empires and to weather the storms of time? Faith
in the Christ, imperfect though that faith has been. The faith of
any people--its trust in and reliance upon some power deemed by it
divine--constitutes its main source of strength.
Faith Must Be Genuine.--But faith must be genuine. Pretense and
formalism will not avail. Hypocrisy is the worst form of unbelief.
Honest idolatry is infinitely preferable to dishonest worship. Better
burn incense to Diana, believing it to be right, than bow down to
Christ in hollow-hearted insincerity. Mighty Rome did not fall
until she had ceased to worship sincerely the gods enshrined within
her Pantheon. Glorious Greece did not succumb until her believers
had become doubters, until skeptical philosophy had supplanted
religious enthusiasm, and the worship of freedom, grace and beauty
had degenerated into unbridled license and groveling sensuality. No
nation ever crumbled to ruin until false to itself, false to the true
principles of success, the basic one of which is _To Believe_.
Germany's Mistake.--The world in recent years has witnessed the sad
spectacle of a great nation, or the ruling powers of that nation,
turning from Christ and substituting for Christian faith a godless
pagan philosophy. Discarding the just and merciful principles of the
Gospel, and adopting the false notion that might makes right, the
fallen Teutonic empire has shown, by the revolting cruelties practiced
in pursuance of that doctrine, what science (kultur) is capable of,
when it parts company with God and morality. The land of Goethe and
Wagner, and alas! the land also of the Hohenzollern and the Hindenburg,
far from winning the "place in the sun" that she so coveted, has lost
the proud place already held by her when the mad ambition of her
military chiefs plunged her into ruin. The one thing that can now
redeem her and lift her up out of the pit into which she has fallen,
is faith in the true God, and the works by which that faith is made
manifest.
According to Their Faith.--God deals with men ac-according to their
faith. The Savior wrought mighty miracles, by his own faith, but most
of them were faith abounded in the hearts of the people. In other
places he did not do many mighty works, "because of their unbelief."
Faith is a gift from God, and they who serve him best have most of it.
Faith is the soil that brings forth miracles. "All things are possible
to them that believe."
Footnotes
1. D. & C. Lectures on Faith, Lec. 1, pp. 1, 2; See also Heb. 11.
2. Matt. 17:20.
3. Ether 12:30.
4. It is my belief that the Savior, in his reference to the mustard
seed, meant that if man would obey the divine law given for his
government as faithfully as that tiny germ obeys the law given for its
government, he could wield infinitely more power than he now possesses.
Solid stone pavements are upheaved and cracked asunder by the gradual
growth or expansion of a seed or root buried underneath. Such things
indicate a hidden force even in the lowliest creations. It is written
that the earth "filleth the measure of its creation, and transgresseth
not the law." (D. & C. 88:25). If man were that obedient, he would have
the power to "move mountains."
5. 1 Nephi 13:12.
6. "Heroes and Hero Worship," Lec. 2.
PART EIGHTH
BEYOND THE HORIZON
ARTICLE THIRTY-SEVEN.
The Spirit World.
Not Heaven.--That there is a Spirit World, and that it is closely
connected with the material world--the one we now inhabit--has been a
tenet in the religious philosophy of wise and good men all down the
ages. In the minds of many people, the Spirit World and Heaven are
synonymous terms, indicating one and the same place. But in reality
there is a wide difference between them. A State of rest, such as the
spirit life is understood to be for the righteous--though "rest" should
not be interpreted as idleness or want of occupation--might easily pass
for heaven, when contrasted with this life of pain, sorrow and trouble.
But that is only relative. It is not saying too much--indeed it may
be saying too little--to affirm that there is just as much difference
between the spirit world and heaven, as between the mortal and the
spiritual phases of man's existence.
Here on Earth.--According to Parley P. Pratt, the Spirit World is the
spiritual part of this planet--or, to use his exact language: "The
earth and other planets of a like order have their inward or spiritual
spheres, as well as their outward or temporal. The one is peopled by
temporal tabernacles, and the other by spirits." "As to its location,"
he says, "it is here on the very planet where we were born." [1]
All Things Before Created.--The proposition that Earth has a spiritual
as well as a temporal sphere is a reassertion of the doctrine of
duality, embodied in ancient and modern revelation, and particularly
emphasized by Joseph the Seer. A careful reading of the Book of Genesis
(the King James version) discloses, though somewhat vaguely, the fact
of this duality, as applied to the works of creation. Thus, after
giving an account of the earth and of all things connected therewith,
the sacred writer says:
"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they
were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the
heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and
every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused
it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground."
[2]
"Not a man to till the ground"--and yet man had been created, as well
as the plants and herbs that existed "before they grew." The apparent
contradiction--apparent though not real--was explained by the Prophet
when, by the Spirit of Revelation, he revised the Scriptures, giving a
more ample account of the creation than the ordinary Bible contains.
From that account the following sentences are taken:
"For I the Lord God created all things of which I have spoken,
spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the
earth. . . . . And I the Lord had created all the children of men; and
not yet a man to till the ground. For in heaven created I them; and
there was not yet flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neither
in the air . . . . Nevertheless, all things were before created." [3]
First Spiritual, Then Temporal.--In other words, there were two
creations--or rather, the creation had two phases, the first spiritual,
the second temporal. When the Creator made man and beast and fish and
fowl, he made them twice--first in the spirit, then in the body; and
the same is true of the trees, the shrubs, the flowers, and all other
created things. They were made spiritually and temporally, the spirit
and the body constituting the soul. [4]
Not Far Away.--The Spirit World is not a thing afar off. Our thoughts
need not sail away millions of miles into space to find it. According
to the best evidence we possess, it is near to us--right around us.
We have but to emerge from the body, and we are in the spirit world.
Out of it we came, and unto it we shall return. "The spirits of the
just," says the Prophet Joseph, "are not far from us;" they "know and
understand our thoughts, feelings and motions, and are often pained
therewith." [5]
Just and Unjust.--The spirits of the unjust likewise inhabit the spirit
world, though they are separated from the righteous, and are not in a
state of rest. Light and darkness divide that realm, each domain having
its appropriate population. So far from being Heaven, part of the
spirit world is Hades or Hell. Referring to the class who people that
part, the Prophet says: "The great misery of departed spirits ... is to
know that they come short of the glory that others enjoy and that they
might have enjoyed themselves; and they are their own accusers." [6]
Jesus and the Penitent Thief.--"In the spirit world," says Parley P.
Pratt, "are all the varieties and grades of intellectual beings which
exist in the present world. For instance, Jesus Christ and the thief on
the cross both went to the same place." That is to say, they both went
to the spirit world.