ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE.
Boundless infinitude of time, and space,
And elements eternal! Who can trace
Earth with its treasures, Heaven with its spheres,
Time's revolutions, eternity's years?
But what are all these, when measured by thee,
But marks on thy dial, or motes on thy sea!
The idea of a God without "body, parts, or passions," is not more
absurd or inconsistent than that modern popular doctrine, that all
things were created from nonentity, or in other words, that something
originated from nothing.
It is a self-evident truth, which will not admit of argument, that
nothing remains nothing. Nonentity is the negative of all existence.
This negative possesses no property or element upon which the energies
of creative power can operate.
This mysticism must, therefore, share the fate of the other mysteries
of false Theology and philosophy, which have for ages shrouded the
world in the sable curtains of a long and dreary night. It must
evaporate and disappear as a mere creation of fancy, while, in its
place, are introduced the following self-evident and incontrovertible
facts--
First. There has always existed a boundless infinitude of space.
Second. Intermingled with this space there exists all the varieties of
the elements, properties, or things of which intelligence takes
cognizance; which elements or things taken altogether compose what is
called the Universe.
Third. The elements of all these properties or things are eternal,
uncreated, self-existing. Not one particle can be added to them by
creative power. Neither can one particle be diminished or annihilated.
Fourth. These eternal, self-existing elements possess in themselves
certain inherent properties or attributes, in a greater or less
degree; or, in other words, they possess intelligence, adapted to
their several spheres.
These elements have been separated, by philosophers, into two grand
divisions, viz.--
"PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL."
To a mind matured, or quickened with a fulness of intelligence, so as
to be conversant with all the elements of nature, there is no use for
the distinction implied in such terms.
To speak more philosophically, all the elements are spiritual, all are
physical, all are material, tangible realities. Spirit is matter, and
matter is full of spirit. Because all things which do exist are
eternal realities, in their elementary existence.
Who then can define the precise point, in the scale of elementary
existence, which divides between the physical and spiritual kingdoms?
There are eyes which can discern the most refined particles of
elementary existence. There are hands and fingers to whose refined
touch all things are tangible.
In the capacity of mortals, however, some of the elements are
tangible, or visible, and others invisible. Those which are tangible
to our senses, we call physical; those which are more subtle and
refined, we call spiritual.
Spirit is intelligence, or the light of truth, which filleth all
things.
Its several emotions or affections, such as love, joy, &c., are but so
many actions or motions of these elements, as they operate in their
several spheres.
By these actions or emotions the elements manifest their eternal
energies, attributes, or inherent powers.
In contemplating the works of creation, then, the student must not
conceive the idea that space, or time, or element, or intelligence,
was originated, but rather, that these are eternal, and that they
constitute the energies which act, and the things acted upon,
including the place and time of action.
The whole vast structure of universal organized existence, presents
undeniable evidence of three facts, viz.--
First. The eternal existence of the elements of which it is composed.
Second. The eternal existence of the attributes of intelligence, and
wisdom to design.
Third. The eternal existence of power, to operate upon and control
these eternal elements, so as to carry out the plans of the designer.
It will be recollected that the last chapter recognizes a family of
Gods, or, in other words, a species of beings, who have physical
tabernacles of flesh and bones, in the form of man, but so constructed
as to be capable of eternal life; that these tabernacles are
quickened, or animated by a fulness of that holiest of all elements,
which is called the Holy Spirit, which element or spirit, when
organized, in individual form, and clothed upon with flesh and bones
in the highest possible refinement, contains, in itself, a fulness of
the attributes of light, intelligence, wisdom, love, and power; also
that there are vast quantities of this spirit or element not organized
in bodily forms, but widely diffused among the other elements of
space.
A General Assembly, Quorum, or Grand Council of the Gods, with their
President at their head, constitute the designing and creating power.
The motive power, which moves to action this grand creative power, is
wisdom, which discovers a use for all these riches, and inspires the
carrying out of all the designs in an infinite variety of utility and
adaptation.
Wisdom inspires the Gods to multiply their species and to lay the
foundation for all the forms of life, to increase in numbers, and for
each to enjoy himself in the sphere to which he is adapted, and in the
possession and use of that portion of the elements necessary to his
existence and happiness.
In order to multiply organized bodies, composed of spiritual element,
worlds and mansions composed of spiritual element would be necessary
as a home, adapted to their existence and enjoyment. As these
spiritual bodies increased in numbers, other spiritual worlds would be
necessary, on which to transplant them.
Again. In order to enable these organized spirits to take upon them a
fleshly tabernacle, physical worlds, with all their variety and
fulness, would be necessary for their homes, food, clothing, &c., that
they might be begotten, sustained, and born, that they might live,
die, and rise again to receive their inheritances on their respective
earths.
Hence the great work of regeneration of worlds, or the renovation and
adaptation of the elements to the resurrection and eternal state of
man, would also be endless, or eternally progressive.
Through every form of life, and birth, and change, and resurrection,
and every form of progress in knowledge and experience, the candidates
for eternal life must look upon the elements as their home; hence the
elements, upon the principle of adaptation, must keep pace with the
possessors who use them, in all the degrees of progressive refinement.
While room is found in infinite space:
While there are particles of unorganized element in Nature's
storehouse:
While the trees of Paradise yield their fruits, or the Fountain of
Life its river:
While the bosoms of the Gods glow with affection:
While eternal charity endures, or eternity itself rolls its successive
ages, the heavens will multiply, and new worlds and more people be
added to the kingdoms of the Fathers.
Thus, in the progress of events, unnumbered millions of worlds, and of
systems of worlds, will necessarily be called into requisition, and be
filled by man, and beast, and fowl, and tree, and all the vast
varieties of beings, and things which ever budded and blossomed in
Eden, or thronged the hills and valleys of the celestial Paradise.
When, in the endless progression of events, the full time had arrived
for infinite wisdom to organize and people this globe which we
inhabit, the chaotic elements were arranged in order. It appears at
the commencement of this grand work, that the elements, which are now
so beautifully arranged and adapted to vegetable and animal life, were
found in a state of chaos, entirely unadapted to the uses they now
serve.
There was one vast mixture of elements. Earth, water, soil,
atmosphere--in short, the entire elements of which this mass was
composed, seem to have been completely compounded, or mingled into one
vast chaos, and the whole overwhelmed with a darkness so dense as to
obscure the light of heaven.
Let us turn from the contemplation of scenes so sublimely fearful.
Suffice it to say, the mandate came, darkness fled, the veil was
lifted, light pierced the gloom, and chaos was made visible. Oh what a
scene! A world without landscape, without vegetation, without animal
life, without man, or animated beings. No sound broke on the
stillness, save the voice of the moaning winds, and of dashing,
foaming waters. Again, a voice comes booming over the abyss, and
echoing amid the wastes, the mass of matter hears and trembles, and
lo! the sea retires, the muddy shapeless mass lifts its head above the
waters.
Molehills to mountains grow. Huge islands next appear, and continents
at length expand to view, with hill and vale, in one wide dreary
waste, unmeasured and untrodden.
The surface, warmed and dried by the cheering rays of the now
resplendent sun, is prepared for the first seeds of vegetation.
A Royal Planter now descends from yonder world of older date, and
bearing in his hand the choice seeds of the older Paradise, he plants
them in the virgin soil of our new born earth. They grow and flourish
there, and, bearing seed, replant themselves, and thus clothe the
naked earth with scenes of beauty, and the air with fragrant incense.
Ripening fruits and herbs at length abound. When, lo! from yonder
world is transferred every species of animal life. Male and female,
they come, with blessings on their heads; and a voice is heard again,
"_Be fruitful and multiply_."
Earth--its mineral, vegetable and animal wealth--its Paradise,
prepared, down comes from yonder world on high, a son of God, with his
beloved spouse. And thus a colony from heaven, it may be from the sun,
is transplanted on our soil. The blessings of their Father are upon
them, and the first great law of heaven and earth is again repeated,
"_Be fruitful and multiply_."
Hence, the nations which have swarmed our earth.
In after years, when Paradise was lost by sin; when man was driven
from the face of his heavenly Father, to toil, and droop, and die;
when heaven was veiled from view; and, with few exceptions, man was no
longer counted worthy to retain the knowledge of his heavenly origin;
then, darkness veiled the past and future from the heathen mind; man
neither knew himself, from whence he came, nor whither he was bound.
At length a Moses came, who knew his God, and would fain have led
mankind to know Him too, and see Him face to face. But they could not
receive His heavenly laws, or bide His presence.
Thus the holy man was forced again to veil the past in mystery, and,
in the beginning of his history, assign to man an earthly origin.
Man, moulded from the earth, as a brick!
A Woman, manufactured from a rib!
Thus, parents still would fain conceal from budding manhood, the
mysteries of procreation, or the sources of life's ever flowing river,
by relating some childish tale of new born life, engendered in the
hollow trunk of some old tree, or springing with spontaneous growth,
like mushrooms, from out the heaps of rubbish. O man! When wilt thou
cease to be a child in knowledge?
Man, as we have said, is the offspring of Deity. The entire mystery of
the past and future, with regard to his existence, is not yet solved
by mortals.
We first recognise him, as an organized individual or intelligence,
dwelling with his Father in the eternal mansions. This organized
spirit we call a body, because, although composed of the spiritual
elements, it possesses every organ after the pattern, and in the
likeness or similitude of the outward or fleshly tabernacle it is
destined eventually to inhabit. Its organs of thought, speech, sight,
hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling, &c., all exist in their order, as
in the physical body; the one being the exact similitude of the other.
This individual, spiritual body, was begotten by the heavenly Father,
in His own likeness and image, and by the laws of procreation.
It was born and matured in the heavenly mansions, trained in the
school of love in the family circle, and amid the most tender embraces
of parental and fraternal affection.
In this primeval probation, in its heavenly home, it lived and moved
as a free and rational intelligence, acting upon its own agency, and,
like all intelligence, independent in its own sphere. It was placed
under certain laws, and was responsible to its great Patriarchal Head.
This has been called a "First Estate." And it is intimated that, of
the spirits thus placed upon their agency, one-third failed to keep
their first estate, and were thrust down, and reserved in chains of
darkness, for future judgment. As these are not permitted to multiply
their species, or to move forward in the scale of progressive being,
while in this state of bondage and condemnation, we will trace them no
further, as their final destiny is not revealed to mortals.
The spirits which kept their first estate, were permitted to descend
below, and to obtain a tabernacle of flesh in the rudimental existence
in which we find them in our present world, and which we will call a
second estate.
In passing the veil which separates between the first and second
estates, man becomes unconscious, and, on awakening in his second
estate, a veil is wisely thrown over all the past.
In his mortal tabernacle he remembers not the scenes, the endearing
associations, of his first, primeval childhood in the heavenly
mansions. He therefore commences anew in the lessons of experience, in
order to start on a level with the new born tabernacle, and to
re-develope his intellectual faculties in a progressive series, which
keep pace with the development of the organs and faculties of the
outward tabernacle.
During his progress in the flesh, the Holy Spirit may gradually awaken
his faculties; and in a dream, or vision, or by the spirit of
prophecy, reveal, or rather awaken the memory to, a partial vision, or
to a dim and half defined recollection of the intelligence of the
past. He sees in part, and he knows in part; but never while
tabernacled in mortal flesh will he fully awake to the intelligence of
his former estate. It surpasses his comprehension, is unspeakable, and
even unlawful to be uttered.
Having kept his second estate, and filled the measure of his
responsibilities in the flesh, he passes the veil of death, and enters
a third estate, or probationary sphere. This is called the world of
spirits, and will be treated on more fully under its appropriate head.
Filling the measure of his responsibilities in the world of spirits,
he passes, by means of the resurrection of the body, into his fourth
estate, or sphere of human existence. In this sphere he finds himself
clothed upon with an eternal body of flesh and bones, with every
sense, and every organ, restored and adapted to their proper use.
He is thus prepared with organs and faculties adapted to the
possession and enjoyment of every element of the physical or spiritual
worlds, which can gratify the senses, or conduce to the happiness of
intelligences. He associates, converses, loves, thinks, acts, moves,
sees, hears, tastes, smells, eats, drinks and possesses.
In short, all the elements necessary to his happiness being purified,
exalted, and adapted to the sphere in which he exists, are placed
within his lawful reach, and made subservient to his use.