_THE LAW OF ETERNAL PROGRESSION_
_Object of Mortal Life_--This life is worth as much to us as any
life in the eternities of the Gods. 9:170.
The object of this existence is to learn, which we can only do a little
at a time. 9:167.
What are we here for? To learn to enjoy more, and to increase in
knowledge and in experience. 14:228.
The whole mortal existence of man is neither more nor less than a
preparatory state given to finite beings, a space wherein they may
improve themselves for a higher state of being. 1:334.
We are placed on this earth to prove whether we are worthy to go into
the celestial world, the terrestrial, or the telestial, or to hell, or
to any other kingdom, or place, and we have enough of life given us to
do this. 4:269.
This is a world in which we are to prove ourselves. The lifetime of man
is a day of trial, wherein we may prove to God, in our darkness, in our
weakness, and where the enemy reigns, that we are our Father's friends,
and that we receive light from him and are worthy to be leaders of our
children--to become lords of lords, and kings of kings--to have perfect
dominion over that portion of our families that will be crowned in the
celestial kingdom with glory, immortality, and eternal lives. 8:61.
The first great principle that ought to occupy the attention of
mankind, that should be understood by the child and the adult, and
which is the main spring of all action, whether people understand it or
not, is the principle of {134} improvement. The principle of increase,
of exaltation, of adding to that we already possess, is the grand
moving principle and cause of the actions of the children of men. No
matter what their pursuits are, in what nation they were born, with
what people they have been associated, what religion they profess, or
what politics they hold, this is the main spring of the actions of the
people, embracing all the powers necessary in performing the duties of
life. 2:91.
_Man to Endure Forever_--Hear it, all ye Latter-day Saints! Will
you spend the time of your probation for naught, and fool away your
existence and being? You were organized, and brought into being, for
the purpose of enduring forever, if you fulfil the measure of your
creation, pursue the right path, observe the requirements of the
celestial law, and obey the commandments of our God. 1:113.
We are urged by the Spirit to refrain from articles which tend to
death, to preserve this life, which is the most precious life given
to mortal beings preparatory to an immortal life. It is our business
to prepare to live here to do good. Instead of crying to the people,
prepare to die, our cry is, prepare to live forever. These mortal
houses will drop off sometime, and when they are cleansed and purified,
sanctified and glorified, we shall inherit them again forever and ever.
Let all the Saints pursue a course to live. 12:209.
Mankind, in general, do not stop to reflect, they are pressing headlong
to grasp the whole world if possible; each individual is for himself,
and he is ignorant of the design the Almighty had in his creation and
existence in this life. To obtain a knowledge of this design is a duty
obligatory upon all the sons and daughters of Adam. 1:334.
_The Business of Life_--The only business that we have {135} on
hand is to build up the Kingdom of God and prepare the way of the Son
of Man. 5:230.
We are here to live, to spread intelligence and knowledge among the
people. I am here to school my brethren, to teach my family the way of
life, to propagate my species, and to live, if in my power, until sin,
iniquity, corruption, hell, and the Devil, and all classes and grades
of abominations are driven from the earth. That is my religion and the
object of my existence. We are not here merely to prepare to die, and
then die; but we are here to live and build up the Kingdom of God on
the earth--to promote the Priesthood, overcome the powers of Satan, and
teach the children of man what they are created for--that in them is
concealed the germ of all intelligence. Here is the starting-point--the
foundation that is laid in the organization of man for receiving a
fulness of eternal knowledge and glory. Are we to go yonder to obtain
it? No; we are to promote it on this earth. 8:282.
Human beings are expected by their Creator to be actively employed in
doing good every day of their lives, either in improving their own
mental and physical condition or that of their neighbors. 9:190.
The purpose of our life should be to build up the Zion of our God,
to gather the House of Israel, bring in the fulness of the Gentiles,
restore and bless the earth with our ability and make it as the
Garden of Eden, store up treasures of knowledge and wisdom in our own
understandings, purify our own hearts and prepare a people to meet the
Lord when he comes. 10:222.
Some say that "this is a miserable world, I do not care how soon I
get through." Well, go and destroy yourselves, if you choose; you
have all the opportunity that you can {136} desire, there is plenty
of arsenic, calomel, and other means, within your reach. But I would
not give a cent for such persons; I do not delight in such characters,
and I do not believe that the Lord delights in people who wish to die
before they have accomplished the work that he designed for them to do.
2:270-271.
The Latter-day Saints throughout the valleys in these mountains and
throughout the world ought to be learning what they are on this earth
for. They are here to increase and multiply, to enlarge, to gather
the House of Israel, redeem Zion, build up the Zion of our God, and
to promote that eternal intelligence that dwells with the Gods, and
begin to plant it in this earth, and make it take root downward and
bring forth fruit upward to the glory of God, until every obnoxious
principle in the hearts of men is destroyed, and the earth returns to
its paradisical state, and the Lord comes and dwells with this people,
and walks and talks with them as he did with Father Adam. That is our
business, and not to suffer all our energies to be expended in merely
preparing to die. 8:282.
It may appear strange to some of you, and it certainly does to the
world, to say it is possible for a man or woman to become perfect
on this earth. It is written "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect." Again, "If any man offend not
in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole
body." This is perfectly consistent to the person who understands what
perfection really is.
If the first passage I have quoted is not worded to our understanding,
we can alter the phraseology of the sentence, and say, "Be ye as
perfect as ye can," for that is all we can do, though it is written,
be ye perfect as your Father who is {137} in heaven is perfect. He
cannot be any more perfect than he knows how, any more than we. When
we are doing as well as we know how in the sphere and station which we
occupy here, we are justified in the justice, righteousness, mercy,
and judgment that go before the Lord of heaven and earth. We are as
justified as the angels who are before the throne of God. The sin that
will cleave to all the posterity of Adam and Eve is, that they have not
done as well as they knew how. 2:129.
When we use the term perfection, it applies to man in his present
condition, as well as to heavenly beings. We are now, or may be, as
perfect in our sphere as God and angels are in theirs, but the greatest
intelligence in existence can continually ascend to greater heights of
perfection. 1:93.
_Prepare to Live_--Instead of preparing to die, prepare to live in
the midst of all the exaltations of the Gods. 9:291.
We are organized for the express purpose of controlling the
elements, of organizing and disorganizing, of ruling over kingdoms,
principalities, and powers, and yet our affections are often too highly
placed upon paltry, perishable objects. We love houses, gold, silver,
and various kinds of property, and all who unduly prize any object
there is beneath the celestial world are idolators. 3:257.
But so long as we willingly hold fellowship with that which tends to
death and destruction, we cannot progress as we should in the work of
perfection in ourselves, nor in building up and beautifying Zion. 9:284.
It is our privilege to say, every day in our lives, "That is the best
day I ever lived." Never let a day so pass that you will have cause to
say, "I will live better to-morrow," and I will promise you, in the
name of the Lord Jesus, that {138} your lives will be as a well of
water springing up to everlasting life. You will have his Spirit to
dwell in you continually, and your eyes will be open to see, your ears
to hear, and your understandings to comprehend. 8:140.
He gives a little to his humble followers today, and if they improve
upon it, tomorrow he will give them a little more, and the next day a
little more. He does not add to that which they do not improve upon,
but they are required to continually improve upon the knowledge they
already possess, and thus obtain a store of wisdom. It is plain, then,
that we may receive the truth, and know, through every portion of the
soul, that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation; that it is
the way to life eternal; still there may be added to this, more power,
wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. 2:2.
_Eternal Increase_--This people must go forward, or they will go
backward. 16:165.
This work is a progressive work, this doctrine that is taught the
Latter-day Saints in its nature is exalting, increasing, expanding and
extending broader and broader until we can know as we are known, see as
we are seen. 16:165.
Unless this work is in progress as a whole, it is not complete--we are
found wanting, and not prepared to do the work we are called and sent
to do. 6:267.
Ignorant? Yes, we are ignorant; but we are on the high road to that
eternal knowledge that fills the bosoms of the Gods in eternity. 7:4.
We can still improve, we are made for that purpose, our capacities
are organized to expand until we can receive into our comprehension
celestial knowledge and wisdom, and to continue, worlds without end.
1:92. {139}
Shall we ever be learning and never be able to come to a knowledge of
the truth? No, I say we shall not; but we shall come to the knowledge
of the truth. This is my hope and anticipation, and this is my joy.
18:237.
We are in the school and keep learning, and we do not expect to cease
learning while we live on earth; and when we pass through the veil, we
expect still to continue to learn and increase our fund of information.
That may appear a strange idea to some; but it is for the plain and
simple reason that we are not capacitated to receive all knowledge at
once. We must therefore receive a little here and a little there. 6:286.
We have the principle within us, and so has every being on this earth;
to increase and to continue to increase, to enlarge, and receive and
treasure up truth, until we become perfect. It is wisdom for us to
be the friends of God; and unless we are filled with integrity and
preserve ourselves in our integrity before our God, we actually lay the
foundation for our destruction. 5:54.
If we are saved, we are happy, we are filled with light, glory,
intelligence, and we pursue a course to enjoy the blessings that the
Lord has in store for us. If we continue to pursue that course, it
produces just the thing we want, that is, to be saved at this present
moment. And this will lay the foundation to be saved forever and
forever, which will amount to an eternal salvation. 1:131.
Can mortal beings live so that they are worthy of the society of
angels? I can answer the question for myself--I believe that they can;
I am sure that they can. But in doing this, they must subdue the sin
that is within themselves, correct every influence that arises within
their own hearts that is opposed to the sanctifying influences of
the {140} grace of God, and purify themselves by their faith and by
their conduct, so that they are worthy. Then they are prepared for the
society of angels. To be Saints indeed requires every wrong influence
that is within them, as individuals, to be subdued, until every evil
desire is eradicated, and every feeling of their hearts is brought into
subjection to the will of Christ. 19:66.
We ought not to speak lightly of and undervalue the life we now enjoy,
but so dispose of each passing day that the hours and minutes are spent
in doing good, or at least doing no harm, in making ourselves useful,
in improving our talents and abilities to do more good, cultivating the
principle of kindness to every being pertaining to our earthly sphere,
learning their uses and how to apply them to produce the greatest
possible amount of good; learning to conduct ourselves towards our
families and friends in a way to win the love and confidence of the
good, and overcome every ungovernable passion by a constant practice of
cool judgment and deliberate thoughts. 9:291.
Because of the weakness of human nature, it must crumble to the dust.
But in all the revolutions and changes in the existence of men, in
the eternal world which they inhabit, and in the knowledge they have
obtained as people on the earth, there is no such thing as principle,
power, wisdom, knowledge, life, position, or anything that can be
imagined, that remains stationary--they must increase or decrease.
1:350.
Take the history of this Church from the commencement, and we have
proved that we cannot receive all the Lord has for us. We have proved
to the heavens and to one another that we are not yet capacitated to
receive all the Lord has for us, and that we have not yet a disposition
{141} to receive all he has for us. Can you understand that there is a
time you can receive, and there is a time you cannot receive, a time
when there is no place in the heart to receive? The heart of man will
be closed up, the will will be set against this and that, that we have
opportunity to receive. There is an abundance the Lord has for the
people, if they would receive it. 10:291.
To me, life is increase; death is the opposite. 1:350.
Do you think that we are always going to remain the same size? I am not
a stereotyped Latter-day Saint, and do not believe in the doctrine.
Every year the Elders of Israel are improving and learning, and have
more power, more influence with the Heavens, more power over the
elements, and over diseases, and over the power of Satan, who has ruled
this earth from the days of the fall until now. We have to gain power
until we break the chain of the enemy. Are we going to stand still?
Away with stereotyped "Mormons." I have more power than I had last
year. I feel much stronger than ever before, and that too in the power
of God; and I feel as though I could take the people and bring them
into the presence of God, if they only hearken to counsel. Do you think
that I am improving? "Yes." Keep up, then; keep your places, and follow
in the track. 8:185.
We are privileged, in a spiritual point of view, precisely as we are in
a temporal point of view. We have the privilege of learning and adding
to the knowledge we have already obtained. We have a knowledge, for
instance, of the rudiments of the English language. If we continue in
our studies--in our exertions to acquire information, we obtain more
knowledge; and if we continue still to persevere, {142} we add still
more to that, until we are perfect masters of the language.
Again, with regard to mechanism, in a certain sense, the same principle
will hold good. We have the privilege of learning the arts and sciences
that the learned among the Gentile nations understand; we have the
privilege of becoming classical scholars--of commencing with the
rudiments of all knowledge--of entering into the academies, we might
say, of perfection. We might study, and add knowledge to knowledge,
from the time that we are capable of knowing anything until we go down
to the grave. If we enjoyed healthy bodies, so as not to wear upon
the functions of the mind, there is no end to a man's learning. This
compares precisely with our situation pertaining to heavenly things.
6:283-284.
But simply to take the path pointed out in the Gospel by those who
have given us the plan of salvation, is to take the path that leads
to life, to eternal increase; it is to pursue that course wherein
we shall never, never lose what we obtain, but continue to collect,
to gather together, to increase, to spread abroad, and extend to an
endless duration. Those persons who strive to gain eternal life, gain
that which will produce the increase their hearts will be satisfied
with. Nothing less than the privilege of increasing eternally, in every
sense of the word, can satisfy the immortal spirit. If the endless
stream of knowledge from the eternal fountain could all be drunk in by
organized intelligences, so sure immortality would come to an end, and
all eternity be thrown upon the retrograde path. 1:350.
There is one principle that I wish the people would understand and lay
to heart. Just as fast as you will prove before your God that you are
{143} worthy to receive the mysteries, if you please to call them so,
of the Kingdom of heaven--that you are full of confidence in God--that
you will never betray a thing that God tells you--that you will never
reveal to your neighbor that which ought not to be revealed, as quick
as you prepare to be entrusted with the things of God, there is an
eternity of them to bestow upon you. Instead of pleading with the Lord
to bestow more upon you, plead with yourselves to have confidence in
yourselves, to have integrity in yourselves, and know when to speak
and what to speak, what to reveal, and how to carry yourselves and
walk before the Lord. And just as fast as you prove to him that you
will preserve everything secret that ought to be--that you will deal
out to your neighbors all which you ought, and no more, and learn how
to dispense your knowledge to your families, friends, neighbors, and
brethren, the Lord will bestow upon you, and give to you, and bestow
upon you, until finally he will say to you, "You shall never fall; your
salvation is sealed unto you; you are sealed up unto eternal life and
salvation, through your integrity." 4:371.
Life is an accumulation of every property and principle that is
calculated to enrich, to ennoble, to enlarge, and to increase, in every
particular, the dominion of individual man. To me, life would signify
an extension. I have the privilege of spreading abroad, of enlarging
my borders, of increasing in endless knowledge, wisdom, and power, and
in every gift of God. To live as I am, without progress, is not life,
in fact we may say that is impossible. There is no such principle in
existence, neither can there be. You may explore all the eternities
that have been, were it {144} possible, then come to that which we now
understand according to the principles of natural philosophy, and where
is there an element, an individual living thing, an organized body,
of whatever nature, that continues as it is? It cannot be found. All
things that have come within the bounds of man's limited knowledge--the
things he naturally understands, teach him that there is no period, in
all the eternities, wherein organized existence will become stationary,
that it cannot advance in knowledge, wisdom, power, and glory.
If a man could ever arrive at the point that would put an end to the
accumulation of life--the point at which he could increase no more, and
advance no further, we should naturally say he commenced to decrease
at the same point. Again, when he has gained the zenith of knowledge,
wisdom, and power, it is the point at which he begins to retrograde;
his natural abilities will begin to contract, and so he will continue
to decrease, until all he knew is lost in the chaos of forgetfulness.
As we understand naturally, this is the conclusion we must come to, if
a termination to the increase of life and the acquisition of knowledge
is true. 1:349.
The knowledge we now have in our possession is sufficient to guide and
direct us step by step, day by day, until we are made perfect before
the Lord our Father. 8:167.
Can you not live it for one hour? Begin at a small point; can you not
live to the Lord for one minute? Yes. Then can we not multiply that by
sixty and make an hour, and live that hour to the Lord? Yes; and then
for a day, a week, a month, and a year? Then, when the year is past, it
has been spent most satisfactorily. 8:59-60.
There are great and glorious things yet to be revealed. {145} We are
but babes and sucklings in the knowledge of God and godliness. With
all we know and understand by the Priesthood here in the midst of this
people, we are mere infants before the angels in heaven. 8:203.
I will apply my heart to wisdom, and ask the Lord to impart it to me;
and if I know but little, I will improve upon it, that to-morrow I
may have more, and thus grow from day to day, in the knowledge of the
truth, as Jesus Christ grew in stature and knowledge from a babe to
manhood. 1:313.
This principle is inherent in the organization of all intelligent
beings, so that we are capable of receiving, and receiving, and
receiving from the inexhaustible fountain of knowledge and truth. 3:354.
It is enough for me to know that mankind are made to improve
themselves. All creation, visible and invisible, is the workmanship of
our God, the supreme Architect and Ruler of the whole, who organized
the world, and created every living thing upon it, to act in its
sphere and order. To this end has he ordained all things to increase
and multiply. The Lord God Almighty has decreed this principle to be
the great, governing law of existence, and for that purpose are we
formed. Furthermore, if men can understand and receive it, mankind are
organized to receive intelligence until they become perfect in the
sphere they are appointed to fill, which is far ahead of us at present.
1:92.
A time when there was no God, no eternity! It cannot be possible, and
the philosopher who tries to establish such a doctrine cannot possess
any correct ideas of his own being. Will there ever be such a time? No.
But forever onward and upward. 19:50.
Knowledge increases among this people; they know {146} more of the
things of the Kingdom of God to-day than they did in the days of Joseph
Smith. 10:222.
If a person suffers his feelings to rise above the natural level of his
capacity, they will sink in the same ratio. 8:32.
_Blessings are Proportioned to Our Capacity_--We are prepared for
some things, and we receive just as fast as we prepare ourselves. 15:4.
The heart of man is incapable of fully comprehending the blessings
that God has in store for the faithful, unless he has revealed those
blessings to them by the revelations of his Spirit. The natural man is
contracted in his feelings, in his views, faith and desires, and so are
the Saints, unless they live their religion. 8:188.
Some might suppose that it would be a great blessing to be taken
and carried directly into heaven and there set down, but in reality
that would be no blessing to such persons; they could not reap a
full reward, could not enjoy the glory of the kingdom, and could not
comprehend and abide the light thereof, but it would be to them a
hell intolerable and I suppose would consume them much quicker than
would hell fire. It would be no blessing to you to be carried into
the celestial kingdom, and obliged to stay therein, unless you were
prepared to dwell there. 3:221.
A man who has had his mind opened to the operation of the Priesthood
of the Son of God--who understands anything of the government of
heaven, must understand that finite beings are not capable of receiving
and abiding the celestial law in its fulness. When can you abide a
celestial law? When you become a celestial being, and never until then.
7:143. {147}