THE WORLD OF SPIRITS.
Ye worlds of light and life, beyond our sphere;
Mysterious country! let your light appear.
Ye angels, lift the vail, the truth unfold,
And give our Seers a glimpse of that bright world;
Tell where ye live, and what are your employ,
Your present blessing, and your future joy.
Say, have you learn'd the name, and tun'd the lyre,
And hymn'd the praise of him--the great Messiah?
Have love's emotions kindl'd in your breast,
And hope enraptur'd seiz'd the promis'd rest?
Or wait ye still the resurrection day,
That higher promise of Millennial sway?
When Saints and angels come to earth again,
And in the Mesh with King Messiah reign?
The spirits answer'd as they soar'd away--
"We're happy now, but wait a greater day,
When sin and death, and hell, shall conquer'd be,
And _earth_, with heaven, enjoy the victory."
The spirit of man consists of an organization, or embodiment of the
elements of spiritual matter, in the likeness and after the pattern of
the fleshly tabernacle. It possesses, in fact, all the organs and
parts exactly corresponding to the outward tabernacle.
The entrance of this spirit into its embryo tabernacle of flesh, is
called quickening. The infallible evidence of its presence is
voluntary motion, which implies a degree of independent agency, or
inherent will, which individual identity alone possesses.
When this spirit departs, the outward tabernacle is said to be dead,
that is, the individual who quickened and imparted voluntary motion to
the said tabernacle is no longer there. This individual, on departing
from its earthly house, repasses the dark vale of forgetfulness, and
awakes in the spirit world.
The spirit world is not the heaven where Jesus Christ, his Father, and
other beings dwell, who have, by resurrection or translation, ascended
to eternal mansions, and been crowned and seated on thrones of power;
but it is an intermediate state, a probation, a place of preparation,
improvement, instruction, or education, where spirits are chastened
and improved, and where, if found worthy, they may be taught a
knowledge of the Gospel. In short, it is a place where the Gospel is
preached, and where faith, repentance, hope and charity may be
exercised; a place of waiting for the resurrection or redemption of
the body; while, to those who deserve it, it is a place of punishment,
a purgatory or hell, where spirits are buffetted till the day of
redemption.
As to its location, it is here on the very planet where we were born;
or, in other words, the earth and other planets of a like sphere, 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. A vail is drawn between the one sphere and the other, whereby
all the objects in the spiritual sphere are rendered invisible to
those in the temporal.
To discern beings or things in the spirit world, a person in the flesh
must be quickened by spiritual element, the vail must be withdrawn, or
the organs of sight, or of hearing, must be transformed, so as to be
adapted to the spiritual sphere. This state is called vision, trance,
second sight, clairvoyance, &c.
The elements and beings in the spirit world are as real and tangible
to spiritual organs, as things and beings of the temporal world are to
beings of a temporal state.
In this spirit world there are all the varieties and grades of
intellectual being, which exist in the present world. For instance,
Jesus Christ and the thief on the cross, both went to the same place,
and found themselves associated in the spirit world.
But the one was there in all the intelligence, happiness, benevolence,
and charity, which characterized a teacher, a messenger, anointed to
preach glad tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to
comfort those who mourned, to preach deliverance to the captive, and
open the prison to those who were bound; or, in other words, _To
preach the Gospel to the spirits in prison, that they might he judged
according to men in the flesh_; while the other was there as a thief,
who had expired on the cross for crime, and who was guilty, ignorant,
uncultivated, and unprepared for resurrection, having need of
remission of sins, and to be instructed in the science of salvation.
The former bid farewell to the world of spirits on the third day, and
returned to his tabernacle of flesh, in which he ascended to thrones,
principalities, and powers, while the latter is, no doubt, improving
in the spirit world, and waiting, believing, hoping for the redemption
of the body.
In the world of spirits there are Apostles, Prophets, Elders, and
members of the Church of the Saints, holding keys of Priesthood, and
power to teach, comfort, instruct, and proclaim the Gospel to, their
fellow-spirits, after the pattern of Jesus Christ.
In the same world there are also the spirits of Catholics, and
Protestants of every sect, who have all need to be taught, and to come
to the knowledge of the true, unchangeable Gospel, in its fulness and
simplicity, that they may be judged the same as if they had been
privileged with the same in the flesh.
There is also the Jew, the Mahometan, the infidel, who did not believe
in Christ while in the flesh. All these must be taught, must come to
the knowledge of the crucified and risen Redeemer, and hear the glad
tidings of the Gospel.
There are also all the varieties of the heathen spirits; the noble and
refined philosopher, poet, patriot, or statesman of Rome or Greece;
the enlightened Socrates, Plato, and their like; together with every
grade of spirits, down to the most uncultivated of the savage world.
All these must be taught, enlightened, and must bow the knee to the
eternal king, for the decree hath gone forth, that unto him every knee
shall bow and every tongue confess.
O what a field of labour, of benevolence, of missionary enterprise now
opens to the Apostles and Elders of the Church of the Saints! As this
field opens they will begin to realize more fully the extent of their
divine mission, and the meaning of the great command to "_Preach the
Gospel to every creature_."
In this vast field of labour, the Priesthood are, in a great measure,
occupied, during their sojourn in the world of spirits while awaiting
the resurrection of the body; and at the same time they themselves are
edified, improved, and greatly advanced and matured in the science of
divine Theology.
In the use of the keys of this science, by them administered, and in
connexion with the ministration of certain ordinances, by the
Priesthood in this mortal life, for, and in behalf of, those who are
dead, the doors of the prisons of the spirit world are opened, and
their gloomy dungeons made radiant with light. Hope then springs
afresh. Joy and gladness swell the bosom accustomed to anguish, and
smiles assume the place of tears, while songs of triumph, and the
voice of melody and thanksgiving occupy the hearts, and flow from the
lips, of those who have long dwelt in darkness, and in the region and
shadow of death.
The times of sojourn of a spirit in the world of spirits, and also its
privileges and degrees of enjoyment, or of suffering, while there,
depend much on its preparations while in the flesh.
For instance, the people swept off by the flood of Noah, were
imprisoned in the world of spirits, in a kind of hell; without
justification, without Priesthood or Gospel, without the true
knowledge of God, or a hope of resurrection, during those long ages
which intervened between the flood and the death of Christ. It was
only by the personal ministry of the spirit of Jesus Christ, during
his sojourn in the spirit world, that they were at length privileged
to hear the Gospel, and to act upon their own agency, the same as men
in the flesh; whereas, if they had repented at the preaching of Noah,
they might have been justified, and filled with the hope and knowledge
of the resurrection while in the flesh.
When Jesus Christ had returned from his mission in the spirit world,
had triumphed over the grave, and re-entered his fleshly tabernacle,
then the Saints who had obeyed the Gospel while in the flesh, and had
slept in death, or finished their sojourn in the spirit world, were
called forth to re-enter their bodies, and to ascend with him to
mansions and thrones of eternal power, while the residue of the
spirits remained in the world of spirits to await another call.
Those who obeyed the Gospel on the earth, after this first
resurrection, will also be called from their sojourn in the spirit
world, and re-united with their tabernacles of flesh, at the sounding
of the next trump, and will reign on the earth in the flesh, one
thousand years, while those who rejected the Gospel will remain in the
spirit world without a resurrection, till after the thousand years.
Again, those who obey the Gospel in the present age will rise from the
spirit world, and from the grave, and reign on the earth during the
great thousand years; while those who reject it will remain in
condemnation in the spirit world, without a resurrection, till the
last trump shall sound, and death and hell deliver up their dead.