_DISPENSATIONS OF THE GOSPEL_
_The Earth_--The world and all its various grades of organized
denizens, from the lowest forms of vegetable or animal life, up to man,
the lord of creation, were framed and made, or they would not have been
here. 14.41.
It is said in this book (the Bible) that God made the earth in six
days. This is a mere term, but it matters not whether it took six days,
six months, six years, or six thousand years. The creation occupied
certain periods of time. We are not authorized to say what the duration
of these days was, whether Moses penned these words as we have them,
or whether the translators of the Bible have given the words their
intended meaning. However, God created the world. God brought forth
material out of which he formed this little terra firma upon which
we roam. How long had this material been in existence? Forever and
forever, in some shape, in some condition. We need not refer to all
of those who were with God, and who assisted him in this work. The
elements form and develop, and continue to do so until they mature,
and then they commence to decay and become disorganized. The mountains
around us were formed in this way. By and by, when they shall have
reached their maturity, the work of disintegration and decay will
commence. It has been so from all eternity, and will continue to be so
until they are made celestial. 18:231.
This earth is brought together and organized from native elements as
we now behold it, our tabernacles included. The matter of which all
animate and inanimate existence is formed is from all eternity, and it
must remain {154} to all eternity, without beginning and without end.
There are certain portions of this native element that will be refined
and prepared to enter into the celestial kingdom--into the celestial
family of the celestial world. If the spirit honors the body and the
body honors the spirit while they are here united, the particles of
matter that compose the mortal tabernacle will be resurrected and
brought forth to immortality and eternal life; but it cannot be brought
forth and made immortal, except it undergoes a change, for "dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return." What for? To prepare the body to
be made immortal and fitted to dwell in the presence of the Gods. 8:27.
We shall go and come; and when we are in the eternity, we shall be on
this earth, which will be brought into the immediate presence of the
Father and the Son. We shall inhabit different mansions, and worlds
will continue to be made, formed, and organized, and messengers from
this earth will be sent to others. This earth will become a celestial
body--be like a sea of glass, or like a Urim and Thummim; and when
you wish to know anything, you can look in this earth and see all the
eternities of God. We shall make our home here, and go on our missions
as we do now, but at greater than railroad speed. 8:200.
We are for the Kingdom of God, and not going to the moon, nor to any
other planet pertaining to this solar system; but are determined
to have a heaven here, and are going to make it ourselves, by the
help of God and his angels. We have been traditionated that when we
were prepared to be saved, we ought then to pass from this stage of
existence, and that then we never would have anything more to do with
this earth; for all our connections and associations with it, as
pertaining to this life, also passed {155} away, and we should see
and know nothing about it in the future. This is not according to the
design, as we believe, of God and his providences and works. It is not
the work of the Lord to organize an earth and destroy it. That is not
the system he has devised. His plan is to organize an earth, people
it with intelligent beings, present to them the principles of eternal
life, and bestow upon them the keys thereof, that they may be able to
prepare themselves to dwell to all eternity, and to bring forth their
increase to dwell with them. This is our belief. 8:293.
The animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms abide the law of their
Creator; the whole earth and all things pertaining to it, except man,
abide the law of their creation. 9:246.
The earth is organized for a glorious resurrection. 2:124.
But the earth will not be utterly destroyed; the elements of which it
is composed will not be annihilated, but they will be changed. Neither
shall those be consumed who can abide the day of the Lord Almighty,
and stand in his presence. The earth in that great day will be
renovated--cleansed from wickedness--purified from dross, sanctified,
and prepared for the habitation of the Saints of the Most High. 2:124.
The earth is very good in and of itself, and has abided a celestial
law, consequently we should not despise it, nor desire to leave it, but
rather desire and strive to obey the same law that the earth abides,
and abide it as honorably as does the earth. 2:302-303.
The earth will abide its creation, and will be counted worthy of
receiving the blessings designed for it, and will ultimately roll back
into the presence of God who formed it and established its mineral,
vegetable, and animal kingdoms. {156} These will all be retained upon
the earth, come forth in the resurrection, and abide for ever and for
ever. 8:8.
This earth in its present condition and situation, is not a fit
habitation for the sanctified; but it abides the law of its creation,
has been baptized with water, will be baptized by fire and the Holy
Ghost, and by-and-by will be prepared for the faithful to dwell upon.
8:83.
_Adam and Eve_--Mankind is composed of two distinct elements; the
first is a spiritual organization in eternity, the second is a natural
organization on this earth, formed out of the material of which this
earth is composed. Man is first spiritual, then temporal.
These spirits I shall leave for the present, and refer to our first
parents, Adam and Eve, who were found in the Garden of Eden, tempted
and overcome by the power of evil, and consequently subject to evil
and sin, which was the penalty of their transgression. They were now
prepared, as we are, to form bodies or tabernacles for the reception of
pure and holy spirits. 18:257.
When Father Adam came to assist in organizing the earth out of the
crude material that was found, an earth was made upon which the
children of men could live. After the earth was prepared Father Adam
came and stayed here, and there was a woman brought to him. There was
a certain woman brought to Father Adam whose name was Eve, because she
was the first woman, and she was given to him to be his wife. 16:167.
When Moses wrote and said that man was formed precisely in the image
of God he wrote the truth. We are the children of our Father--his
offspring, of the same family; we belong to him by birthright, and we
are his children {157} and Jesus is our brother. Does the Bible tell
all this? Just as plain as words can tell anything. 14:280.
In the beginning, after this earth was prepared for man, the Lord
commenced his work upon what is now called the American continent,
where the Garden of Eden was made. In the days of Noah, in the days
of the floating of the ark, he took the people to another part of the
earth; the earth was divided, and there he set up his kingdom. 8:195.
The human family are formed after the image of our Father and God.
After the earth was organized the Lord placed his children upon it,
gave them possession of it, and told them that it was their home--the
place of their habitation from thenceforth; he told them to till the
ground and subdue it; he gave it to them for their inheritance, and to
do their will upon it. Then Satan steps in and overcomes them through
the weakness there was in the children of the Father when they were
sent to the earth, and sin was brought in, and thus we are subjected to
sin. 10:300.
Some may regret that our first parents sinned. This is nonsense. If
we had been there, and they had not sinned, we should have sinned. I
will not blame Adam or Eve. Why? Because it was necessary that sin
should enter into the world; no man could ever understand the principle
of exaltation without its opposite; no one could ever receive an
exaltation without being acquainted with its opposite. How did Adam
and Eve sin? Did they come out in direct opposition to God and to
his government? No. But they transgressed a command of the Lord, and
through that transgression sin came into the world. The Lord knew
they would do this, and he had designed that they should. Then came
the curse upon the fruit, upon the vegetables, and upon our mother
earth; and it came upon the creeping {158} things, upon the grain in
the field, the fish in the sea, and upon all things pertaining to this
earth, through man's transgression. 10:312.
Mother Eve partook of the forbidden fruit. We should not have been
here to-day if she had not; we could never have possessed wisdom and
intelligence if she had not done it. It was all in the economy of
heaven, and we need not talk about it; it is all right. We should never
blame Mother Eve, not the least. I am thankful to God that I know good
from evil, the bitter from the sweet, the things of God from the things
not of God. When I look at the economy of heaven my heart leaps for
joy, and if I had the tongue of an angel, or the tongues of the whole
human family combined, I would praise God in the highest for his great
wisdom and condescension in suffering the children of men to fall into
the very sin into which they had fallen, for he did it that they, like
Jesus, might descend below all things and then press forward and rise
above all. 13:145.
The Devil had truth in his mouth as well as lies when he came to Mother
Eve. Said he, "If you will eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of
good and evil, you will see as the Gods see." That was just as true as
anything that ever was spoken on the face of the earth. She did eat,
her eyes were opened, and she saw good and evil. She gave of the fruit
to her husband, and he ate, too. What would have been the consequence
if he had not done so? They would have been separated, and where would
we have been? I am glad he did eat. 12:70.
We are safe in saying that from the day that Adam was created and
placed in the Garden of Eden to this day, the plan of salvation and the
revelations of the will of God to man are unchanged, although mankind
have not for many {159} ages been favored therewith, in consequence of
apostasy and wickedness. There is no evidence to be found in the Bible
that the Gospel should be one thing in the days of the Israelites,
another in the days of Christ and his Apostles, and another in the 19th
century, but, on the contrary, we are instructed that God is the same
in every age, and that his plan of saving his children is the same. The
plan of salvation is one, from the beginning of the world to the end
thereof. 10:324.
I wish you all to understand "Mormonism" as it is. We embraced it
in different parts of the world, because we considered it the best
religion we could find. Can we tell how much better "Mormonism" is than
other religions and isms of the present day? More or less truth may be
found in them all, both in civilized and barbarous nations. How has
it transpired that theological truth is thus so widely disseminated?
It is because God was once known on the earth among his children of
mankind, as we know one another. Adam was as conversant with his
Father who placed him upon this earth as we are conversant with our
earthly parents. The Father frequently came to visit his son Adam, and
talked and walked with him; and the children of Adam were more or less
acquainted with him, and the things that pertain to God and to heaven
were as familiar among mankind in the first ages of their existence on
the earth, as these mountains are to our mountain boys, as our gardens
are to our wives and children, or as the road to the Western Ocean is
to the experienced traveler. From this source mankind have received
their religious traditions. 9:148.
The Gospel was among the children of men from the days of Adam until
the coming of the Messiah; this Gospel {160} of Christ is from
the beginning to the end. Then why was the law of Moses given? In
consequence of the disobedience of the Children of Israel, the elect
of God; the very seed that he had selected to be his people, and upon
whom he said he would place his name. This seed of Abraham so rebelled
against him and his commands that the Lord said to Moses, "I will give
you a law which shall be a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ." But
this law is grievous; it is a law of carnal commandments. 13:269.
Cain conversed with his God every day, and knew all about the plan of
creating this earth, for his father told him. But, for the want of
humility, and through jealousy, and an anxiety to possess the kingdom,
and to have the whole of it under his own control, and not allow
anybody else the right to say one word, what did he do? He killed his
brother. Then the Lord put a mark on him. 2:142-143.
Here let me state to all philosophers of every class upon the earth,
when you tell me that Father Adam was made as we make adobes from the
earth, you tell me what I deem an idle tale. When you tell me that the
beasts of the field were produced in that manner, you are speaking idle
words devoid of meaning. There is no such thing in all the eternities
where the Gods dwell. Mankind are here because they are the offspring
of parents who were first brought here from another planet, and power
was given them to propagate their species, and they were commanded to
multiply and replenish the earth. 7:285-6.
We all belong to the races which have sprung from Father Adam and
Mother Eve; and every son and daughter of that God we serve, who
organized this earth and millions of others, and who holds them in
existence by law. 14:111.
There are no persons without evil passions to embitter {161} their
lives. Mankind are revengeful, passionate, hateful, and devilish in
their dispositions. This we inherit through the fall, and the grace
of God is designed to enable us to overcome it. The grace of God is
bestowed upon all, and the Kingdom of God is planted on the earth
expressly to enable mankind to overcome the evil that is in them, and
to save all. 8:160.
It is true mankind have wandered and have fallen from that which they
might have attained through the redemption made by Jesus Christ; but
there is one point in connection with this statement on which I differ
from the orthodox divines of the day. They say that man is naturally
prone to evil. In some respects this is true, where by the force of
example and wrong tradition has become ingrained, but if man had always
been permitted to follow the instincts of his nature, had he always
followed the great and holy principles of his organism, they would have
led him into the path of life everlasting, which the whole human family
are constantly trying to find. 10:189.
_Enoch to Moses_--The Lord sent forth his Gospel to the people;
he said, I will give it to my son Adam, from whom Methuselah received
it; and Noah received from Methuselah; and Melchizedek administered to
Abraham. 3:94.
Enoch possessed intelligence and wisdom from God that few men ever
enjoyed, walking and talking with God for many years; yet, according
to the history written by Moses, he was a great length of time in
establishing his kingdom among men. The few that followed him enjoyed
the fulness of the Gospel, and the rest of the world rejected it. Enoch
and his party were taken from the earth, and the world continued to
ripen in iniquity until they were overthrown by the great flood in the
days of Noah; and, "as it {162} was in the days of Noah, so shall it be
in the days of the coming of the Son of Man." 9:365.
Enoch had to talk with and teach his people during a period of three
hundred and sixty years, before he could get them prepared to enter
into their rest, and then he obtained power to translate himself and
his people, with the region they inhabited, their houses, gardens,
fields, cattle and all their possessions. 3:320.
Abraham was faithful to the true God, he overthrew the idols of his
father and obtained the Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek,
which is after the order of the Son of God, and a promise that of the
increase of his seed there should be no end; when you obtain the holy
Priesthood, which is after the order of Melchizedek, sealed upon you,
and the promise that your seed shall be numerous as the stars in the
firmament, or as the sands upon the sea shore, and of your increase
there shall be no end, you have then got the promise of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, and all the blessings that were conferred upon them. 11:118.
If they had been sanctified and holy, the Children of Israel would not
have traveled one year with Moses before they would have received their
endowments and the Melchizedek Priesthood. 6:100.
Mankind have degenerated; they have lost the physical and mental power
they once possessed. In many points pertaining to mechanism, men
have in modern times been instructed by revelation to them, and this
mechanical knowledge causes them almost to boast against their Creator,
and to set themselves up as competitors with the Lord Almighty,
notwithstanding they have produced nothing but what has been revealed
to them. In the knowledge of astronomical and other philosophical
truths, which our {163} modern great men are searching after and pride
themselves in, they are but babes, compared with the ancient fathers.
Do the wise men of modern ages understand the laws which govern the
worlds that are, that were, and that are to come? They cannot fathom
this matter. They have grown weaker when they ought to have grown
stronger and wiser. 8:61.
_Jesus on Earth_--It was necessary for Jesus Christ to open
the heavens to certain individuals that they might be witnesses of
his personage, death, sufferings, and resurrection; those men were
witnesses. But as Jesus appeared to the two brethren going out of
Jerusalem, he was made known to them in the breaking of bread. Now
suppose he had eaten that bread, and gone out without opening their
eyes, how could they have known that he was the Savior who had been
crucified on Mount Calvary? They could not; but in the breaking of
bread the vision of their minds was opened. This was necessary in order
to constitute safe witnesses, and they returned to Jerusalem and told
the brethren what they had seen. 3:208.
When we come to discriminate between the former and the Latter-day
Saints we shall find there was a little difference in their callings
and duties, and in many points that we may say pertain to our temporal
lives. Not in the doctrine of baptism, the laying on of hands for the
reception of the Holy Ghost, nor in the gifts of the Gospel. There is
no difference in these things, but there is a difference in regard to
the temporal duties devolving upon us. 12:67.
_The Apostasy_--In the early days of the Christian Church we
understand that there was a good deal of speculation among its members
with regard to their belief and practice, and the propagation of these
speculative ideas {164} created divisions and schisms. Even in the
days of the Apostles there was evidently considerable division, for we
read that some were for Paul, some for Apollos, and others for Cephas.
The people in those days had their favorites, who taught them peculiar
doctrines not generally received and promulgated. 12:64.
Why have they wandered so far from the path of truth and rectitude?
Because they left the Priesthood and have had no guide, no leader, no
means of finding out what is true and what is not true. It is said the
Priesthood was taken from the Church, but it is not so, the Church went
from the Priesthood and continued to travel in the wilderness, turned
from the commandments of the Lord, and instituted other ordinances.
12:69.
You can read the account given of our first parents. Along came a
certain character and said to Eve, you know women are of tender heart,
and he could operate on this tender heart, "The Lord knows that in
the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt not surely die, but if thou
wilt take of this fruit and eat thereof thine eyes will be opened and
thou wilt see as the Gods see"; and he worked upon the tender heart of
Mother Eve until she partook of the fruit, and her eyes were opened.
He told the truth. And they say now, "Do this that your eyes may be
opened, that you may see; do this that you may know thus and so." In
the days of Jesus and his Apostles the same power was operating, and,
actuated by that, men hunted them until the last one was banished
from human society, and until the Christian religion was so perverted
that the people received it with open hands, arms, mouth and heart.
It was adulterated until it was congenial to the wicked heart, and
they received the Gospel as they supposed. But that was the time they
commenced {165} little by little to transgress the laws, change the
ordinances, and break the everlasting covenant, and the Gospel of the
kingdom that Jesus undertook to establish in his day and the priesthood
were taken from the earth. 15:126.
The land of Judea has fallen into disrepute, and it has become a
desert, just through the apostasy of those who once inhabited it, who
had the oracles of God among them. 16:66.
_The Restoration_--Generations have come and gone without the
privilege of hearing the sound of the Gospel, which has come to you
through Joseph Smith--that was revealed to him from heaven by angels
and visions. We have the Gospel and the keys of the holy Priesthood.
7:173.
We are a people whose rise and progress from the beginning, has been
the work of God our Heavenly Father, which in his wisdom he has seen
proper to commence for the re-establishment of his Kingdom upon the
earth. 2:170.
Do you think the Lord Almighty will reveal the great improvements in
the arts and sciences which are being constantly made known and will
not revive a pure religion? If any man imagines that with the mighty
strides which the sciences have been making for a few years past,
there will be no improvement in religion, that man is vain in his
imagination. God will improve the religion of the nations of the earth
in proportion to the improvement made in the sciences. This is true
whether you believe it or not. The Lord has commenced the work, and it
is a marvelous one. 12:135.
It was decreed in the counsels of eternity, long before the foundations
of the earth were laid, that he, Joseph Smith, should be the man, in
the last dispensation of this {166} world, to bring forth the word
of God to the people, and receive the fulness of the keys and power
of the Priesthood of the Son of God. The Lord had his eyes upon him,
and upon his father, and upon his father's father, and upon their
progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood, from
the flood to Enoch, and from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that family
and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of
that man. He was fore-ordained in eternity to preside over this last
dispensation. 7:289.
But as it was in the days of our Savior, so was it in the advent of
this new dispensation. It was not in accordance with the notions,
traditions, and pre-conceived ideas of the American people. The
messenger did not come to an eminent divine of any of the so-called
orthodoxy, he did not adopt their interpretation of the Holy
Scriptures. The Lord did not come with the armies of heaven in power
and great glory, nor send his messengers panoplied with aught else than
the truth of heaven, to communicate to the meek, the lowly, the youth
of humble origin, the sincere enquirer after the knowledge of God. But
he did send his angel to this same obscure person, Joseph Smith, Jr.
who afterwards became a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, and informed him
that he should not join any of the religious sects of the day, for they
were all wrong; that they were following the precepts of men instead of
the Lord Jesus; that he had a work for him to perform, inasmuch as he
should prove faithful before him.
No sooner was this made known, and published abroad, and people began
to listen and obey the heavenly summons, than opposition began to
rage, and the people, even in this favored land, began to persecute
their neighbors and friends {167} for entertaining religious opinions
differing from their own. 2:171.
You may remember it and lay it to heart, and if you wish, write it in
your journals that some of the best spirits that have ever been sent to
earth are coming at the present time. 11:117.
The beginning of this dispensation of the fulness of times may well be
compared to the commencement of a temple, the material of which it is
to be built being still scattered, unshaped and unpolished, in a state
of nature. I am thankful that the way is being prepared, and that we
have the privilege of erecting a spiritual and moral superstructure--a
temple of God. 12:161.
_The Book of Mormon_--There is not another nation under heaven,
in whose midst the Book of Mormon could have been brought forth. The
Lord has been operating for centuries to prepare the way for the coming
forth of the contents of that Book from the bowels of the earth, to
be published to the world, to show to the inhabitants thereof that he
still lives, and that he will, in the latter days, gather his elect
from the four corners of the earth. It was the Lord who directed
the discovery of this land to the nations of the Old World, and its
settlement, and the war for independence, and the final victory of the
colonies, and the unprecedented prosperity of the American nation,
up to the calling of Joseph the Prophet. The Lord has dictated and
directed the whole of this, for the bringing forth, and establishing of
his Kingdom in the last days. 11:17.
Here is the Book of Mormon. We believe it contains the history of
the aborigines of our continent, just as the Old Testament contains
the history of the Jewish nation. In that book we learn that Jesus
visited this continent, delivered {168} his Gospel and ordained Twelve
Apostles. We believe all this, but we do not ask you to believe it.
What we do ask is that you will believe what is recorded in the Holy
Bible concerning God and his revelations to the children of men. Do
this in all honesty and sincerity, then you will know that the Book
of Mormon is true. Your minds will be opened and you will know by the
visions of the Spirit of God that we teach the truth. 13:335.
I was somewhat acquainted with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon,
not only through what I read in the newspapers, but I also heard a
great many stories and reports which were circulated as quick as the
Book of Mormon was printed, and began to be scattered abroad. Then the
spirit of persecution, the spirit of death, the spirit of destruction
immediately seemed to enter the hearts of the pious priests more
particularly than any other portion of the people; they could not bear
it. 2:249.
What did Oliver Cowdery (one of the three witnesses to the Book of
Mormon) say, after he had been away from the Church years and years?
He saw and conversed with the angel, who showed him the plates, and he
handled them. He left the Church because he lost the love of the truth;
and after he had traveled alone for years, a gentleman walked into his
law office and said to him, "Mr. Cowdery, what do you think of the
Book of Mormon now? Do you believe that it is true?" He replied, "No,
sir, I do not!" "Well," said the gentleman, "I thought as much; for I
concluded that you had seen the folly of your ways and had resolved to
renounce what you once declared to be true." "Sir, you mistake me; I do
not believe that the Book of Mormon is true; I am past belief on that
point, for I _know_ that it is true, as well as I know that you now sit
{169} before me." "Do you still testify that you saw an angel?" "Yes,
as much as I see you now; and I know the Book of Mormon to be true."
Yet he forsook it. Every honest person who has fairly heard it knows
that "Mormonism" is true, if they have had the testimony of it; but to
practice it in our lives is another thing. 7:55. {170}