^ 
 
JOSEPH SMITH 
 
 THE 
 
 PROPHET-TEACHER 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 BY 
 
 ELDER B.H.ROBERTS . 
 
 THE DESERET NEWS 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 
 1908 
 
Copyright, 1908. 
 By B. H. Roberts. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 I. 
 
 A GREAT POSSIBILITY. 
 
 II. 
 HISTORICAL AMERICANS. 
 
 III. 
 WHAT IS A PROPHET? 
 
 IV. 
 
 RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL BELIEFS 
 OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
 
 Revelation. 
 
 Ideas of Deity. 
 
 Of the Universe. 
 
 Of Man. 
 
 Man and His Salvation. 
 
 Of the Significance of Salvation and Damnation. 
 
 THE PROPHET'S CORRECTION OF SECTA- 
 RIAN ERRORS. 
 
 The Doctrine of Revelation. 
 
 The Being and Kind of Being God Is. 
 
 Creation, the Law of Substance. 
 
 Of Man's Origin. 
 
 Election and Reprobation. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE PROPHET'S PHILOSOPHICAL DOC- 
 TRINES. 
 
 The Prophet's Definition of Truth. 
 
 As to Things Existences. 
 
 The Reign of Law. 
 
 Change and Its Tendency. 
 
 The Existence of Good and Evil. 
 
 The Intelligent Entity. 
 
 The Relationship of Intelligences. 
 
 Man's Freedom. 
 
 Eternity of Relations. 
 
 VIL 
 
 THE PROPHET'S GENERALIZATIONS. 
 
 VIII. 
 AN AMERICAN PROPHET. 
 
 America the Old World. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States Inspired of 
 
 God. 
 America Fortified of God Against Other Nations. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 TO MY MOTHER, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF 
 HER EIGHTY-SECOND BIRTHDAY, DE- 
 CEMBER 18, 1908. 
 
 FOR a long time, my Dear Mother, I 
 have desired to couple remembrance 
 of you with some of my works; and 
 finally have chosen this Discourse upon our 
 great Prophet-Teacher to carry with it that 
 distinction. To all who read this Discourse, 
 then, I desire to say that I love and honor 
 you; and that your love for me has ever 
 been an inspiration to my work. 
 
JOSEPH SMITH 
 
 THE 
 
 PROPHET-TEACHER 
 
 A Discourse* 
 
 TOMORROW will be the one hun- 
 dred and second anniversary of the 
 birth of Joseph Smith, whom most 
 of you here present believe was a Prophet of 
 God. I have been invited to say some- 
 thing about him on this occasion. It is not at 
 all my intention to deal with the incidents of 
 Joseph Smith's eventful life; these are fa- 
 miliar to you. If I could attain the full de- 
 sire of my heart, I would like to set before 
 you somewhat the value of this man as a 
 teacher of great truths. I desire to speak of 
 him as a Prophet-Teacher, that is, as a 
 Prophet acting in his capacity of Teacher, a 
 Prophet's highest and noblest office. 
 As an introduction to what I desire to say, 
 I shall read a passage from a book quite 
 famous for its literary merit it has reached 
 its ninth edition; also it is famous for the 
 
 "This discourse was delivered at the Tabernacle, 
 Salt Lake City, on Sunday, December 22nd, 1907, at a 
 Memorial Service held in honor of the one hundred 
 and second anniversary of the Prophet's birth, 23rd 
 December 1805. 
 
 7 
 
JOSEPH character sketches of prominent Americans 
 SMITH of the early decades of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. The book, "Figures of the Past," 
 was written by Josiah Quincy of the famous 
 Quincy family of Massachusetts, a gradu- 
 ate of Harvard, 1821; mayor of Boston 
 from 1845 to 1849. Mr. Quincy visited 
 Nauvoo in May, 1844, forty-three days pre- 
 vious to the martyrdom of the Prophet, and 
 though his "Figures of the Past" was not 
 published until 1882, the year of his death, 
 yet his recollections of the Prophet and his 
 impressions of Nauvoo were drawn from his 
 journal, written at the time of that visit, and 
 numerous letters written to his friends about 
 the same period. Mr. Quincy places his pen- 
 portrait of "Joseph Smith at Nauvoo" with 
 similar portraits of such eminent Americans 
 as John Adams, Daniel Webster, John Ran- 
 dolph, Andrew Jackson, and the French sol- 
 dier and statesman, Lafayette. The passage 
 I am going to read is the opening paragraph 
 of the chapter on "Joseph Smith at Nau- 
 
 voo." 
 
 I. 
 A GREAT POSSIBILITY. 
 
 IT is by no means improbable that some 
 future text-book, for the use of gener- 
 ations yet unborn, will contain a ques- 
 tion something like this: What historical 
 8 
 
American of the nineteenth century has ex- THE 
 erted the most powerful influence upon the PROPHET- 
 destinies of his countrymen ? And it is by TEACHER 
 no means impossible that the answer to that 
 interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph 
 Smith, the Mormon Prophet. And the reply, 
 absurd as it doubtless seems to most men 
 now living, may be an obvious commonplace 
 to their descendants. History deals in sur- 
 prises and paradoxes quite as startling as 
 this. The man who established a religion in 
 this age of free debate, who was and is today 
 accepted by hundreds of thousands as a di- 
 rect emissary from the Most High such a 
 rare human being is not to be disposed of by 
 pelting his memory with unsavory epithets." 
 
 Reading that passage a few days ago, I 
 asked the question: Is this rather remark- 
 able semi-prediction of Quincy's in the way 
 of fulfillment? Tomorrow will be the one 
 hundred and second anniversary of our 
 Prophet's birth. It is more than one hun- 
 dred years since he came to earth, and sixty- 
 three years since he departed from it. What 
 evidence is there before the world that 
 would lead any serious-minded person to 
 believe that this prediction I have read in 
 your hearing may find fulfillment? "Cer- 
 tainly," men will begin to say, "enough time 
 has elapsed to develop the character of your 
 Prophet's work; whether he built of wood, 
 
 9 
 
j OSE p H hay, stubble, or of gold or precious stones. 
 
 SMITH * s ki s influence to be merely transient and 
 local or did he really deal with some uni- 
 versal and permanent truths that must re- 
 main to influence mankind?" 
 
 II. 
 HISTORICAL AMERICANS. 
 
 A" introductory to these considerations, 
 let us think about some of these his- 
 torical Americans whose influence 
 upon their countrymen is to be eclipsed, per- 
 haps, by the "Mormon Prophet." Among 
 our patriots and statesmen will be remem- 
 bered Patrick Henry, with his doctrine of 
 the inherent right of revolution against in- 
 tolerable oppression; Jefferson, and his 
 "Declaration of Independence" and the"Sta- 
 tute of Virginia for Religious Freedom," 
 the principle of which finally found its way 
 into our national and state Constitutions; 
 Alexander Hamilton and his political inter- 
 pretation of the constitutional powers of our 
 general government; Webster and his doc- 
 trine of the sacredness of the American 
 Union of States the statesman of national- 
 ism ; Monroe, with the doctrine which bears 
 his name, politically segregating the Amer- 
 ican continents from Europe, and dedicating 
 the western world to free institutions; Lin- 
 coln, with his doctrine of the rightfulness of 
 
 10 
 
personal freedom for every man, woman and THE 
 child of Adam's race the doctrine of the PROPHET- 
 universal application of the self-evident prin- TEACHER 
 ciples of the Declaration of Independence 
 the right of men to live, to be free, to pur- 
 sue happiness principles he invoked in be- 
 half of the African race in the United States. 
 Among inventors will be remembered Ful- 
 ton, Whitney, Morse and Edison; among 
 the philosophers, practical and speculative, 
 Franklin, Emerson and John Fiske; among 
 the poets, Longfellow, Poe, Whitman, and 
 Lowell; among the preachers and theolo- 
 gians, Jonathan Edwards and his cruel orth- 
 odoxy ; Wm. E. Channing and his Unitarian 
 liberalism; Henry Ward Beecher and his 
 successor, Lyman Abbott, with their efforts 
 at reconciliation of Christianity and evolu- 
 tion. 
 
 This enumeration does not exhaust the list 
 of historical Americans who have powerfully 
 influenced their countrymen, but it will not 
 be doubted that they represent the very 
 chief of the respective groups that have so 
 influenced their countrymen. 
 
 Thinking of the achievements of these 
 great Americans, and weighing the influ- 
 ence of each upon his countrymen, do you 
 not really think, even with Josiah Quincy 
 on our side, it looks presumptuous in us to 
 hold that Joseph Smith may yet exert a 
 greater influence over his countrymen than 
 
 ii 
 
JOSEPH any one of these, his compatriots? That is 
 SMITH the question I propose to put on trial here 
 this afternoon. 
 
 III. 
 WHAT IS A PROPHET? 
 
 FIRST of all, a word of definition: 
 This term "prophet" what do you 
 make of it? Generally, when 
 you speak of a "prophet," you have in 
 mind a predictor of future events, one 
 who foretells things that are to come to 
 pass, and indeed that is, in part, the 
 office of a prophet in part what is ex- 
 pected of him. But really this is the very 
 least of his duties. A prophet should be a 
 "forth-teller" rather than a fore-teller. Pri- 
 marily he must be a teacher of men, an ex- 
 pounder of the things of God. The inspira- 
 tion of the Almighty must give .him under- 
 standing, and when given he must expound 
 it to his people, to his age. He must be a 
 Seer that can make others see. A Teacher 
 sent of God to instruct a people to en- 
 lighten an age. This is the primary office 
 of a prophet. And now I want to show you 
 how well and faithfully our Prophet per- 
 formed such duties. 
 
 To do this it is necessary that I say some- 
 thing about the ideas prevailing in the world 
 at the Prophet's advent among men I 
 
 12 
 
mean as to their religions and philosophies, 
 the doctrines by which they were influenced. 
 And this not only as to truth, but also as to 
 error and chiefly as to error, for, among 
 other things, a prophet must correct the 
 errors of men. It is a capital method of 
 teaching truth this correcting of errors. 
 
 IV. 
 
 RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL 
 BELIEFS OF ONE HUNDRED 
 YEARS AGO. 
 
 REVELATION: At the commence- 
 ment of the nineteenth century the 
 general idea prevailed in Christen- 
 dom that a great while ago a very definite 
 revelation from God had been given ; angels 
 had visited the earth and imparted divine 
 knowledge to men; the Spirit of the Al- 
 mighty had rested upon some and had given 
 them understanding by which they were 
 able to declare the mind of God and the will 
 of God. These were prophets. Some 
 prophets there were who even talked with 
 God "face to face, as a man speaketh unto 
 his friend." So communed Moses with 
 God (Ex. 33:11) ; so, too, Isaiah (Isa. 6:1-6). 
 But while this belief as to revelation in the 
 past everywhere prevailed, orthodox Chris- 
 tendom was equally certain that no revela- 
 tion was being given in their day; and not 
 
 THE 
 
 PROPHET- 
 
 TEACHER 
 
JOSEPH only was no revelation then being given, 
 SMITH but neither would there be any revelation 
 given in future time. "The volume of reve- 
 lation is completed and forever closed," was 
 dogma in all Christendom. There would be 
 no future visitation of angels. No more 
 would the heavens be opened, or man stand 
 face to face with his God, or speak to his 
 Lord as a man speaketh to his friend. All 
 this was ended. The canon of scripture was 
 completed, and forever closed. That canon 
 consisted of the Old and New Testaments; 
 all other books were secular this alone 
 sacred. There was no other word of God. 
 
 IDEAS OF DEITY : In regard to deity, 
 Christian men, at the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century, believed that God 
 was an incorporeal, immaterial being, with- 
 out body that is, not material, not mat- 
 ter; without parts; without passions. And 
 yet, with gravest inconsistency, they held; 
 that God was of love the essence; that He 
 loved righteousness, that He hated iniquity ; 
 that He so loved the world that He gave 
 His only begotten Son that whosoever be- 
 lieveth on Him should not perish, but have 
 everlasting life! Notwithstanding this 
 "love" and this "hate" God was without 
 passions! He was, too, according to men's 
 creeds, without form. Notwithstanding 
 Moses, one of the God-inspired teachers of 
 14 
 
men, said that "God created man in His own THE 
 image, in the image of God created He PROPHET- 
 him;" and Jesus, by a prophet of the New TEACHER 
 Testament, was declared to be the express 
 image of God's person (Hebrews i: 2, 3). 
 Notwithstanding this, I say, men, in the 
 early decades of the nineteenth century, 
 were possessed of a "morbid terror" of an- 
 thropomorphism the ascription of human 
 form, feeling or qualities to God as if they 
 could escape it and still hold belief in the 
 Bible revelation of God! Or, for matter of 
 that, hold to any doctrine of God taught 
 either by religion or philosophy. At the 
 very least, if the God-idea survive at all, God 
 must be held to possess consciousness, both 
 consciousness of self, and of other than self 
 self-consciousness, and other-conscious- 
 ness; also He must be thought of as pos- 
 sessed of volition; and what are these but 
 human qualities, which present God to our 
 thought as anthropomorphic? Strip God of 
 these attributes and He is reduced to the 
 atheists' "force;" to blind, purposeless force, 
 that can sustain no possible personal re- 
 lationship whatsoever to men or other 
 things in the universe. As one writer in 
 a great magazine recently said: "If we 
 are to know the Supreme Reality at 
 all, it can only be through the attribution to 
 Him of qualities analogous to, though infin- 
 itely transcending, the qualities which we 
 
 15 
 
JOSEPH recognize as highest in man, and conse- 
 SMITH quently [highest] in the world as we know 
 it." 
 
 But I must pass by these inconsistencies of 
 the creeds of men. I shall have no time to 
 discuss them. Indeed, I must ask you to 
 think with me in headlines, and to think 
 fast. We have no time for argument. We 
 shall barely have time to pass over the 
 ground proposed, and must depend upon the 
 truth of our statements being self-evident, 
 or conceded to be accurate statements of 
 fact. 
 
 OF THE UNIVERSE: Respecting 
 the universe, Christendom, at the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century, 
 believed that it was created of God from 
 nothing, and that no great while ago. "Call- 
 ing forth from nothing" was held to be in- 
 deed the meaning of "create." God trans- 
 cended the universe; was, in fact, outside 
 of it; was what an American philosopher 
 (Fiske) some years afterwards called an 
 "Absentee God." Absent, "except for a lit- 
 tle jog or poke here and there in the shape 
 of a special providence." 
 
 Down to a period almost within living 
 memory," says Andrew Dixon White, in his 
 great work, "Warfare of Science with The- 
 ology," "it was held,. virtually 'always, ev- 
 erywhere, and by all/ that the universe, as 
 16 
 
we now see it, was created literally and di- THE 
 rectly by the voice or hands of the Al- PROPHET- 
 mighty, or by both out of nothing in an TEACHER 
 instant, or in six days, or in both about 
 four thousand years before the Christian 
 era and for the convenience of the dwell- 
 ers upon the earth, which was at the base 
 and foundation of the whole structure." 
 Such were the views of men concerning the 
 universe during the period here considered. 
 
 OF MAN: Respecting man, it was 
 taught that while he was created of 
 God, his origin was purely an earth- 
 ly one, his body made of the earth, a spirit 
 breathed into him when his body was made, 
 and so man became a living soul. All taught 
 that he was a created thing, a creature. 
 
 MAN AND HIS SALVATION: As 
 to man's salvation, some of the 
 creeds taught that God, of His own 
 volition, had foreordained that some men 
 and angels were doomed to everlasting de- 
 struction, and others predestined to eternal 
 life and glory. Not "for any good or ill" 
 that they had done or could do, but their fate 
 was fixed by the volition of God alone. 
 These whom He would save, He would move 
 by irresistible grace to their salvation ; those 
 whom He had pre-determined should be 
 damned might not escape, struggle they 
 
 17 
 
JOSEPH never so persistently; no prayers could save 
 SMITH them; no act of obedience might mitigate 
 their punishment; no hungering and thirst- 
 ing after righteousness, bring them to bless- 
 edness; they must perish, and that eter- 
 nally! Those who perish in ignorance of 
 Christ the heathen races were damned. 
 "The heathen in mass, with no single defi- 
 nite and unquestionable exception on rec- 
 ord, are evidently strangers to God, and go- 
 ing down to death in an unsaved condition. 
 The presumed possibility of being saved 
 without a knowledge of Christ remains, 
 after 1,800 years, a possibility illustrated by 
 no example." So said those who expounded 
 this creed. Others, still, taught that infants 
 dying in infancy without receiving Christian 
 baptism were damned, and that everlast- 
 ingly. By some, unbaptized infants were 
 denied burial in sanctified ground. "Hell's 
 Half Acre" was a reality in some Christian 
 graveyards. 
 
 OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SAL- 
 VATION AND DAMNATION: 
 Salvation and damnation meant, as 
 to the former, the attainment of heaven ; as 
 to the latter, assignment to hell. The 
 former, judging from the descriptions of it, 
 a mysterious, indefinite state "enjoyed" 
 somewhere "beyond the bounds of time and 
 space * * * the saints secure abode;" 
 
 18 
 
the latter, a very definite place, with very THE 
 definite and very hot conditions, that had PROPHET- 
 power to endure and that everlastingly, to TEACHER 
 the eternal misery of the damned. Time 
 might come and time might go, but this tor- 
 ture, undiminished, went on forever. If 
 one gained heaven, even by ever so small a 
 margin, he entered upon a complete posses- 
 sion of all its unutterable joys, equally with 
 the angels and the holiest of saints. If he 
 missed heaven, even by ever so narrow a 
 margin, he was doomed to everlasting tor- 
 ment equally with the wickedest of men and 
 vilest of devils, and there was no deliver- 
 ance for him. 
 
 These were some of the prevailing ideas, 
 of the philosophy and the religion of men at 
 the birth of the Prophet. A philosophy inad- 
 equate for any reasonable accounting for the 
 universe. A religion that was derogatory to 
 God and debasing to man errors of both 
 philosophy and religion that it was, I be- 
 lieve, the mission of our Prophet to correct. 
 Let us follow him as he proceeds with his 
 corrections, his setting over against every 
 error above enumerated the truth received 
 of God. 
 
JOSEPH V. 
 
 SMITH 
 
 THE PROPHET'S CORRECTION OF 
 SECTARIAN ERRORS. 
 
 HE DOCTRINE OF REVELA- 
 TION : Against the sectarian dog- 
 ma of the cessation of revelation, 
 Joseph Smith proclaimed the reopening of 
 the heavens. Against the doctrine that an- 
 gels would no more visit the earth, he as- 
 serted the visitation of angels to him, re- 
 vealing the existence of the Book of Mor- 
 mon, a new volume of Scripture. Other 
 angels brought to the Prophet the keys of 
 authority and power held by them in former 
 dispensations. So came John the Baptist 
 with the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood; 
 Peter, James and John, with the keys of the 
 Melchisedek Priesthood; Moses, with the 
 keys of the gathering of Israel, and so 
 following. Against the doctrine of a 
 closed volume of Scripture, Joseph Smith 
 asserted the existence of, and the truth of 
 the American volume of Scripture, the Book 
 of Mormon. Against this whole narrow, 
 bigoted idea of revelation held by the Chris- 
 tian world, he proclaimed a larger view. 
 Instead of holding that a few prophets 
 among the Hebrews had been visited of God 
 and received divine inspiration he repre- 
 sented God as saying: 
 
 "Thou fool, that shall say, A Bible, a Bible, 
 20 
 
we have got a Bible, and we need no THE 
 
 more Bible ! Have ye obtained a Bible, PROPHET- 
 
 save it were by the Jews? Know ye TEACHER 
 
 not that there are more nations than one; 
 
 know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have 
 
 created all men, and that I remember those 
 
 who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I 
 
 rule in the heavens above, and in the earth 
 
 beneath; and I bring forth my word unto 
 
 the children of men; yea, even upon all the 
 
 nations of the earth? For I command all 
 
 men, both in the east and in the west * * * 
 
 and in the islands of the sea, that they 
 
 shall write the words which I speak unto 
 
 them. * * * Behold, I will speak unto 
 
 the Jews, and they shall write it; and I will 
 
 also speak unto the Nephites and they shall 
 
 write it ; and I will also speak unto the other 
 
 tribes of the house of Israel, which I have 
 
 led away, and they shall write it ; and I will 
 
 also speak unto all nations of the earth, and 
 
 they shall write it." 
 
 Joseph Smith also represents one of the 
 Nephite prophets as saying : 
 
 "Behold, the Lord doth grant unto all na- 
 tions, of their own nation and tongue, to 
 teach his word; yea, in wisdom, all that he 
 seeth fit that they should have; therefore 
 we see that the Lord doth counsel in wis- 
 dom, according to that which is just and 
 true." 
 
JOSEPH This doctrine unites in one splendid broth- 
 erhood all the Seekers after God, all those 
 who received inspiration from the Most High 
 and were sent forth from the Divine Pres- 
 ence to instruct their fellow men. Joseph 
 Smith, I say, unites their hands in a splendid 
 brotherhood of the God-inspired men of this 
 world. Not that all the prophets among the 
 various races of men were equally inspired ; 
 not that all came with a fulness of truth; 
 not that all had the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 But if they brought not with their message 
 the effulgent brightness of an all-glorious 
 day, they brought something of twilight 
 which dispelled some of the murkiness of the 
 night in which the men of their respective 
 races had walked; and those who have 
 groped in the density of darkness know how 
 grateful is the twilight, how much better it 
 is than darkness. How noble is this view of 
 God's hand-dealings with the children of 
 men in respect of revelation, as compared 
 with that narrow, bigoted view prevailing 
 at the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
 which held that the Hebrew Scriptures con- 
 tained all the word of God delivered to the 
 inhabitants of the earth! 
 
 THE BEING AND KIND OF BEING 
 GOD IS: Against the dogma that 
 God was an incorporeal, immaterial, 
 passionless being, the Prophet announced 
 
 22 
 
THE 
 
 the splendid doctrine of anthropomorphism 
 
 /- j ..i i r -i i f rr.*~ 
 
 God in the human form, and possessed of TEACHER 
 human qualities, but sanctified and per- 
 
 fected. In the first great revelation which 
 opened this last dispensation our Prophet 
 beheld Father and Son as separate persons, 
 distinct from each other ; persons in the form 
 of men, but more glorious and more splendid, 
 of course, than words could describe them 
 to be. All through the revelations received, 
 and all through his discourses, the Prophet 
 reaffirms the old doctrine of the Scriptures, 
 the doctrine of all the prophets, asserting 
 that man indeed was created in the image of 
 God, and that God possessed human quali- 
 ties, consciousness, will, love, mercy, justice ; 
 together with power and glory in a word, 
 a Man "exalted and perfected." 
 
 /CREATION THE LAW OF SUB- 
 1 j. STANCE: In opposition to the doc- 
 ^-^ trine that God had created the uni- 
 verse of nothing, the Prophet asserted the 
 doctrine of the eternity of substance and 
 energy and law, and their infinite extension 
 throughout all space; that creation is but 
 the wisely wrought changes made in the 
 modes of existences, which are themselves 
 
 in their essence eternal, the changes 
 constantly tending to higher developments, 
 from good to better, or else ministering to 
 that end. 
 
SM S ITH H l^\ F M 4N'S ORIGIN: Against the 
 if doctrine which ascribed a merely 
 earthly origin for man, body and 
 spirit; that taught that the intelligent en- 
 tity in man the mind was a created thing 
 against this, I say, our Prophet taught 
 that "Intelligence is not created or made, 
 neither, indeed, can be." He taught that 
 the intelligent entity in man, which men 
 call "spirit" and sometimes "soul," is a 
 self-existing entity, uncreated and eternal as 
 God is, placed in the way by Higher Intelli- 
 gences, and guided by their love and coun- 
 sels, of increasing his own intelligence and 
 power and glory and joy. Such he repre- 
 sented man to be, and once more crowned 
 him with the dignity belonging to his Divine 
 and eternal nature. 
 
 ELECTION AND REPROBATION: 
 In regard to that monstrous doctrine 
 that God, by the exercise of His sov- 
 ereign will, had predestined some men and 
 angels unto everlasting life, while others He 
 ordained to everlasting death ; and that, not 
 because of the good or the evil they had done 
 or might do, but because he had so willed 
 it by his sovereign will; that "the number 
 of such men and angels thus predestined 
 are so peculiarly and unchangeably known, 
 and their number so certain and definite that 
 24 
 
it can not be either increased or diminished" THE 
 against this monstrous view of the doc- PROPHET- 
 trine of salvation for the race of men, our TEACHER 
 Prophet declared salvation to be free, and 
 every soul of man capable of participating 
 therein, if happily he should seek salvation; 
 and that man could be assured of the help 
 and grace of God to aid him in the attain- 
 ment of salvation. Commenting on a passage 
 of Scripture supposed to teach the sectarian 
 doctrine of Election and Reprobation, the 
 Prophet said: "Unconditional election of in- 
 dividuals to eternal life was not taught by 
 the Apostles. God did elect, or predestinate, 
 that all those who would be saved should be 
 saved in Christ Jesus, and through obedi- 
 ence to the Gospel" other than this there 
 was no predestination or election relating 
 to the salvation of individuals. 
 
 On the subject of the fate of the unin- 
 structed heathen, as also upon the matter 
 of children dying in infancy, or before arriv- 
 ing at the years of accountability, the doc- 
 trine of Joseph Smith held that where no 
 law is given men will be judged without 
 law, but will stand within the circle of the 
 mercy of God, and there is hope, nay, as- 
 surance, of ultimate salvation for the 
 heathen. "The heathen nations shall be re- 
 deemed, and they that knew no law shall 
 have part in the first resurrection; and it 
 
JOSEPH shaii b e tolerable for them," are the words 
 of the Lord through the Prophet. 
 And as for infants dying in infancy, or be- 
 fore arriving at years of accountability, the 
 Prophet taught, the mercy of God claims 
 them wholly. They are redeemed from 
 the consequences of Adam's transgression 
 by the atonement of Christ, and being 
 without sin themselves, the law against 
 sin has no claim upon them, and they 
 are saved to the uttermost without bap- 
 tism or anything else whatsoever, by the 
 pure mercy and justice of God. "Little 
 children are alive in Christ, even from the 
 foundation of the world," is a doctrine of the 
 Prophet's. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL 
 PUNISHMENT: Against the dog- 
 ma of the attainment of heaven or the 
 assignment to hell, involving, as it did, the 
 equality of the glory in the one, and equal 
 severity of punishment in the other, our 
 Prophet reasserted the justice of God in 
 providing a graded state of existence for 
 men in the future life, grades that corres- 
 pond to the state of mental, moral and spir- 
 itual development of every soul of man. 
 Upon this subject Joseph Smith taught that 
 there are many kingdoms of the Father in 
 which men may live, each in a sphere suit- 
 able to his nature, disposition and the degree 
 26 
 
of his development: moderns would say, TH 
 "Suitable to the state of his evolution." He 
 taught that as there is one glory of the sun, 
 another of the moon, and another of the 
 stars, so in future men will exist in varying 
 degrees of glory; that as the stars of heaven 
 differ in infinite degrees of brightness, so 
 also will men in the future exist in places 
 and states of infinite variety, corresponding 
 to the infinite variations of their intelligence, 
 knowledge, tastes, acquirements, inclina- 
 tions, and aspirations. In other words, en- 
 vironment will correspond to nature, with 
 always the possibility present of improving 
 both the environment and the nature, until 
 a fulness of joy is attained by each intelli- 
 gent entity by each man. 
 
 Thus Joseph Smith promulgated a sys- 
 tem of positive doctrine respecting the fu- 
 ture of man that is at once in harmony with 
 the relative claims of justice and mercy; 
 with human reason and divine law. He 
 made known the fact that 
 
 "Eternal punishment is God's punishment." 
 "Endless punishment is God's punishment." 
 
 That is to say, the punishment for sin 
 which is only another way of saying the 
 "penalty" for wrong-doing takes the title 
 of Him in whose name it is administered, 
 that is, it is "God's" punishment, or "Eter- 
 nal's" punishment, "Endless* punishment." 
 
 27 
 
JOSEPH The punishment takes on it the name of 
 SMITH Him in whose authority it is administered. 
 Moreover, penalty will always follow viola- 
 tion of the law, in eternity as in what we call 
 time. So long as law exists, penalties must 
 also exist. They are the necessary concom- 
 itants of law, without which laws are mere 
 nullities. But because punishments, so- 
 called, take on the name of Him in whose 
 authority they are administered, and because 
 law is necessarily paralleled by penalty 
 therefore punishment will always exist for 
 offenders against law; in other words is 
 endless it does not follow that each trans- 
 gressor of the law will suffer its penalties 
 eternally. Such a conception is revolting to 
 reason and derogatory to the justice and 
 mercy of God. While one must needs be- 
 lieve that penalty follows violation of law, 
 the violator only partakes of that penalty to 
 the extent that is necessary to vindicate the 
 law and correct the transgressor's own dis- 
 position: whereupon mercy has her claims, 
 that may not be denied: and the one time 
 violator of law, instructed by his experience 
 in suffering, goes forth to walk, let us hope, 
 in harmony with law, and hence in peace. 
 Thus, all down the line of religious error, 
 as well as in the things here pointed out, 
 Joseph Smith asserted the truth of God, and 
 maintained it before the world. Had he done 
 no more than this, if this had been the 
 28 
 
sole achievement in the world's realm 
 of thought by our Prophethe would 
 stand in fair way of being regarded 
 as the historical American who had ex- 
 erted the most powerful influence upon 
 the destinies of his countrymen. But instead 
 of this being the end of his achievements it 
 is merely the commencement of his life's 
 work ; a mere clearing of the ground for the 
 new temple of religion and philosophy to be 
 erected; the dismissal of the absurdities of 
 old systems to make way for the incoming 
 of the new system of thought which shall be 
 in harmony with the new knowledge of a 
 new and glorious age the incoming millen- 
 nium. 
 
 I wonder if I may venture here to draw in 
 outline the suggestion of that system? By 
 your leave, then : In the beginning it is nec- 
 essary to say to you that I shall use all ideas, 
 doctrines, philosophies, science principles, 
 interpretations that I find brought to the 
 knowledge of the world through Joseph 
 Smith, directly or indirectly. For while 
 doctrines here used are found in the Book 
 of Mormon and properly should be referred 
 to the prophets among ancient American 
 peoples for their origin, still the world to- 
 day owe their knowledge of these things to 
 the translation of the Book of Mormon by 
 Joseph Smith. So also in relation to the Book 
 of Moses and the Book of Abraham. So 
 
 29 
 
JOSEPH also as to the revelations in the Doctrine and 
 SMITH Covenants; such philosophy and religious 
 principles as are there found are given of 
 God, but Joseph Smith received and pub- 
 lished them, and for the purposes of what is 
 here to be set forth shall stand as his doc- 
 trines and philosophy, as well also as those 
 utterances that make up the subject-matter 
 of his discourses. 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE PROPHET'S PHILOSOPHICAL 
 DOCTRINES. 
 
 THE PROPHET'S DEFINITION 
 OF TRUTH: Undoubtedly the 
 quest of philosophy is Truth. And 
 again, undoubtedly, Philosophy would be 
 greatly helped in its search for Truth if it 
 had but a clear conception of what it was 
 trying to find; hence the importance of a 
 clear and accurate definition of Truth. It is 
 at this point, however, that the greatest dif- 
 ficulty arises for the human intellect. It is 
 quite generally conceded that up to the early 
 decades of the nineteenth century no satis- 
 factory definition of Truth had been found. 
 When Jesus stood bound before Pilate's 
 judgment seat, and testified that He was 
 born to bear witness of the Truth, Pilate 
 whether in mockery or in earnest curiosity 
 we may not now know asked the question : 
 30 
 
"What is truth?" But the Divine Man made THE 
 no answer. Most commentators say that, PROPHET- 
 without waiting for an answer the Roman TEACHER 
 procurator departed from the judgment hall 
 to speak to the Jews clamoring on the out- 
 side ; and all regret the opportunity that was 
 there lost of receiving a divine answer to the 
 question. One set of commentators, refer- 
 ring to Pilate's question, say to him : "Thou 
 stirrest the question of questions, which the 
 thoughtful of every age have asked, but 
 never man yet answered." 
 
 A secular writer presents the same incident 
 as follows: " 'What is truth?' was the pas- 
 sionate demand of a Roman procurator, on 
 one of the most momentous occasions in his- 
 tory. And the Divine Person who stood be- 
 fore him, to whom the interrogation was ad- 
 dressed, made no reply unless, indeed, si- 
 lence contained the reply. Often and vain- 
 ly had that demand been made before 
 often and vainly has it been made since. No 
 one has yet given a satisfactory answer." 
 
 Then, by way of historical illustration of 
 this assertion, our author remarks the fol- 
 f ollowing : 
 
 "When, at the dawn of science in 
 Greece, the ancient religion was disappear- 
 ing like a mist at sunrise, the pious and 
 thoughtful men of that country were thrown 
 into a condition of intellectual despair. Anax- 
 agoras plaintively exclaims, 'Nothing can be 
 
 31 
 
[ known, nothing can be learned, nothing can 
 be certain, sense is limited, intellect is weak, 
 life is short.' Xenophanes tells us that it is 
 impossible for us to be certain even when 
 we utter the Truth. Parmenides declares 
 that the very constitution of man prevents 
 him from ascertaining absolute Truth. Em- 
 pedocles affirms that all philosophical and 
 religious systems must be unreliable, be- 
 cause we have no criterion by which to 
 test them. Democritus asserts that even 
 things that are true cannot impart certainty 
 to us ; that the final result of human inquiry 
 is the discovery that man is incapable of ab- 
 solute knowledge ; that, even if the truth be 
 in his possession, he cannot be certain of it. 
 Pyrrho bids us reflect on the necessity ot 
 suspending our judgment of things, since we 
 have no criterion of truth ; so deep a distrust 
 did he impart to his followers that they were 
 in the habit of saying, 'We assert nothing; 
 not even that we assert nothing.' Epicurus 
 taught his disciples that truth can never be 
 determined by reason. Arcesilaus, denying 
 both intellectual and sensuous knowledge, 
 publicly avowed that he knew nothing, not 
 even his own ignorance ! The general con- 
 clusion to which Greek philosophy came was 
 this: that, in view of the contradiction of 
 the evidence of the senses, we cannot dis- 
 tinguish the true from the false ; and such is 
 the imperfection of reason, that we cannot 
 32 
 
affirm the correctness of any philosophical THE 
 deduction." PROPHET- 
 
 I make these quotations to show that no TEACHER 
 satisfactory definition of Truth, either in 
 ancient or modern times, either in religion 
 or philosophy, has been given, and also to 
 call attention to the fact that if Joseph Smith 
 has given a definition of Truth that appeals 
 with irresistible force to the understanding 
 of men, it must be a strongly original utter- 
 ance ; a revelation of the utmost importance. 
 Such a definition, I believe, he has given. In 
 1833 he said: 
 
 "Truth is knowledge of things as they are, 
 and as they were, and as they are to come." 
 
 This I hold to be the completest definition 
 of Truth found in human literature. It deals 
 with relative truth, absolute truth, and truth 
 unfolding or becoming. 
 
 It may be objected that this definition is 
 defective in that it appears to make Truth 
 depend upon knowledge. "Truth," says the 
 definition, "is knowledge of things as they 
 are," etc. This part of the definition deals 
 with relative Truth merely. "Truth as it 
 appears to us," says S. Baring-Gould, "can 
 only be relative, because we are relative cre- 
 atures, have only a relative perception and 
 judgment. We appreciate that which is true 
 to ourselves, not that which is universally 
 true." 
 
 In other words, and using the language of 
 
 33 
 
JOSEPH Herbert Spencer at this point: "Debarred 
 as we are from everything beyond the rel- 
 ative, Truth, raised to its highest form, can 
 be for us nothing more than perfect agree- 
 ment throughout the whole range of our ex- 
 perience, between those representations of 
 things which we distinguish as ideal and 
 those presentations of things which we dis- 
 tinguish as real." That is to say, to each in- 
 dividual, "knowledge of things as they are 
 and as they were" will be to him the Truth, 
 and the fullness thereof, though not neces- 
 sarily all the Truth there is. There is Truth, 
 however, which does not depend upon 
 knowledge; existences beyond and inde- 
 pendent of any human knowledge, at least. 
 To illustrate: America existed, though all 
 Europe was without knowledge of it for 
 ages ; until, in fact, it was discovered by Co- 
 lumbus. The power of steam always existed, 
 but men did not know it until modern times. 
 So, also, with the mysterious force called 
 electricity, it always existed, but not until 
 recent years did man know it as a force that 
 could be utilized; and so as to many other 
 forces and truths in God's universe that are 
 now existing, and have always existed, but 
 man, as yet, has no knowledge of them. 
 The storehouse of Truth is not yet exhaust- 
 ed by man's discoveries. There are more 
 Truths in heaven and earth than are yet 
 dreamed of in human philosophies. 
 
 34 
 
And yet it may be that running parallel THE 
 with those existences, substances and rela- PROPHET- 
 tions unknown to man, there exist intelli- TEACHER 
 gences that cognize such existences and re- 
 lations. To recur to one item in the illus- 
 trations above: America existed though all 
 Europe was without knowledge of it until 
 discovered by Columbus; but America had 
 inhabitants, intelligences of her own that 
 knew of the existence of these Western con- 
 tinents. And so it may be if one could be 
 transported to Mars; while there is much 
 that we do not know about Mars has it an 
 atmosphere and oceans? Has it great con- 
 tinents and mountain ranges? Is it inhab- 
 ited? If so, what is the status of its civiliza- 
 tion? These all may be existences, realities 
 on Mars, but we do not know of them, but 
 there may be intelligent inhabitants on Mars 
 who know all these things and a thousand 
 more that are unknown to us, yet known to 
 intelligences inhabiting Mars. And so as 
 to the most distant planets and planet-sys- 
 tems conceivable. Everywhere that things 
 exist, they may be paralleled by Intelligences 
 that cognize them. Then, again, there are 
 varying degrees of Intelligences. Where 
 two Intelligences exist and one is more in- 
 telligent than another, it leads to the thought 
 that there may be a third more intelligent 
 than the first two ; thence to a fourth or fifth 
 more intelligent still; thence onward, rising 
 
 35 
 
JOSEPH one above another, in superiority of intel- 
 SMITH Hgence until you stand in the presence of an 
 infinity of Intelligences, or reach One more 
 intelligent than them all ! One who, direct- 
 ly or indirectly, in all councils presides ; who 
 guides all movements; who directs all un- 
 dertakings; who controls all worlds and 
 world-systems ; who loves all ; who comprer 
 hends all things, even the sum of existences 
 the Truth ! And so in the last analysis of 
 the matter, wheresoever there are existences 
 to be known, even though they stretch to 
 infinity, there are also Intelligences that par- 
 allel such existences to cognize them, con- 
 trol them, dominate them, and through them 
 work out Their will. 
 
 The phrase above "the sum of exist- 
 ence:" we have more to do with that. The 
 phrase is used by a most faithful and earn- 
 est Christian man, the late John Jacques. 
 Instructed by the Prophet Joseph Smith, 
 he sang in his hymn on Truth, the following : 
 
 Then say, what is Truth? 'Tis the last and 
 
 the first, 
 
 For the limits of time it steps o'er; 
 Though the heavens depart and the earth's 
 
 fountains burst, 
 Truth, the sum of existence, will weather the 
 
 worst, 
 
 Eternal, unchanged, evermore. 
 Surely that which is, that which has been, 
 and that which is to come, must be the sum 
 36 
 
of existence, or absolute Truth ; and all that THE 
 is, or has been, or shall be, has been, is and PROPHET- 
 shall be known by the everywhere existing TEACHER 
 Intelligences, who, with the rest of their 
 knowledge, know themselves; who possess 
 self-consciousness, as well as other-con- 
 sciousness, that is, consciousness of other 
 things than themselves. Truth, indeed, 
 from this view point, is knowledge of 
 that which is, including self-knowledge of 
 the knower. It may be said that the abso- 
 lute Truth, even as here set forth, is be- 
 yond the grasp of the finite mind. I shall 
 concede the claim; but because finite mind 
 cannot comprehend the sum of existence, or 
 absolute Truth, it does not follow that the 
 definition we are discussing is at fault, or 
 that it can be displaced by one meaning 
 more or less. Reflection upon the definition 
 here presented will develop the fact that it 
 contains a self-evident proposition of the 
 same nature as the statement, "duration is 
 eternal" without beginning, without end. 
 Or, "space is limitless" it has no point be- 
 yond which it may not be conceived to ex- 
 tend, and beyond which it does not extend. 
 It is vain to say that the finite mind cannot 
 comprehend the realities presented by these 
 statements. The thing is greater than any 
 symbol we can fashion of it by word or oth- 
 erwise; but we cannot conceive the op- 
 posite of these statements, i. e., that space 
 
 37 
 
;P H has boundaries; that duration has limits; 
 that absolute Truth is less than the sum of 
 existence. In the definition herein set forth 
 you have all that is ; and if in any definition 
 of Truth there is failure to include the sum 
 of existences by so much would the defini- 
 tion be defective and fail of its aim to define 
 Truth. As to relative Truth every indi- 
 vidual man's Truth that is each individual 
 man's knowledge of so much of the sum of 
 existences as he can make his own, as al- 
 ready pointed out. 
 
 One other reflection on this definition. 
 Note the words in it : "Knowledge of things 
 * * * as they are to come." This pre- 
 sents a view of Truth seldom if ever met 
 with. It gives the idea of movement. Truth 
 is not a stagnant pool, but a living fountain ; 
 not a Dead Sea without tides or currents; 
 on the contrary it is an ocean, immeasur- 
 ably great, vast, co-extensive with the Uni- 
 verse it is the Universe bright-heaving, 
 boundless, endless and sublime ! Moving in 
 majestic currents, uplifted by tides in cease- 
 less ebb and flow; variant but orderly; tak- 
 ing on new forms from ever-changing com- 
 binations; new adjustments; new relations 
 multiplying itself in ten thousand times 
 ten thousand ways ; ever reflecting the intel- 
 ligence of the Infinite; and declaring alike 
 in its whispers and in its thunders, the hived 
 wisdom of the ages of God! 
 38 
 
A 5 TO THINGS EXISTENCES: We THE 
 are next to consider the universe in PRO1 
 which men, angels, archangels and 
 Gods Intelligences all live. 
 
 "There are many kingdoms * * * and 
 there is no space in the which there is no 
 kingdom; and there is no kingdom in the 
 which there is no space." 
 
 This was said by Joseph Smith in 1832. 
 The context of the passage makes it clear 
 that "kingdoms" here are not groups of men 
 or nations over which a monarch reigns; 
 but substance, matter, worlds and systems 
 of worlds, under the dominion of law, and 
 Intelligences. It is the doctrine of the eter- 
 nal and everywhere existence of matter and 
 space. It is a description of the universe as 
 far as it is describable. But let us think of 
 the passage a moment; for it requires 
 thought to rightly apprehend it. 
 
 This "space" what is meant by it? I ask 
 you what is between the two walls of this 
 hall, and you would rightly answer space,, 
 extension. But what is on the outside of 
 each wall space ; neither wall is the end of 
 space, then. Let us look higher. What is 
 between us and the sun? Space extension. 
 How much of it? Our astronomers say 92,- 
 000,000 miles. What is on the other side of 
 the sun in a direct line from us? Space. 
 How much, 92,000,000 miles? Yes, and if 
 92,000,000 miles were multiplied by 92,000,- 
 
 39 
 
00 the P ro ^ uct w uld not indicate all the 
 space in a direct line from us on the oppos- 
 ite side of the sun. Beyond the point so 
 obtained space would still extend. But one 
 wearies of these units of measure ; take a ray 
 of light. In the single batting of a bird's 
 wing light will pass eight times round the 
 earth, that is it will pass over a distance of 
 198,000 miles! There are fixed stars suns 
 so distant from us, the astronomers say, 
 that it requires hundreds of thousands and 
 even millions of years for a ray of light to 
 reach us from those distant suns ! Take one 
 of those distant suns and think upon it in re- 
 spect of space, just as we did a moment ago 
 in regard to what is between our earth and 
 the sun and beyond the sun, in a direct line 
 from us, and you get the same results. There 
 is no means by which the limitless may be 
 measured. Whatever the length of your 
 measuring wand it is still inadequate. By 
 no measurement, by no conception, may 
 one reach the "outside curtains" beyond 
 which space does not extend. And so as to 
 time, duration. What was before today? 
 Yesterday. And what will be after today? 
 Tomorrow. Take a century, or, better yet, 
 a millennium, a period of 1,000 years why 
 not take 1,000,000 years as a period with 
 which to measure duration? It will answer 
 just as well as our "day" of a moment ago. 
 What preceded our present period of 1,000,- 
 40 
 
000 years? A previous 1,000,000 of such THE 
 years. And what will follow the present ] 
 period of 1,000,000 years? Another such 
 period. So you may continue, make your 
 period of measurement what length of years 
 or centuries or millenniums you please, the 
 result will always be the same. It is again 
 the attempt to measure the limitless, to en- 
 compass that which is infinite. The sum of 
 all our thought on this head is well stated by 
 Ernest Haeckel in one of his latest works, 
 the very last but one, I believe, the publica- 
 tion of which falls within the present de- 
 cade: 
 
 a. "The extent of the universe is infinite 
 and unbounded; it is empty in no part, but 
 everywhere filled with substance. 
 
 b. "The duration of the world is equally 
 infinite and unbounded ; it has no beginning 
 and no end ; it is eternity." 
 
 Such may be said to be the settled and uni- 
 versal conviction of science now ; but it was 
 far from such conviction in 1832 when 
 Joseph Smith said the same in the passage 
 "There are many kingdoms; * * * and 
 there is no space in the which there is no 
 kingdom; and there is no kingdom in the 
 which there is no space." 
 
JOSEPH rr-% HE REIGN OF LAW: "There are 
 many kingdoms * * * and to ev- 
 
 -- ery kingdom is given a law; and to 
 every law there are certain bounds also, and 
 conditions. All beings who abide not in 
 those conditions (i. e., abide within the law) 
 are not justified." 
 
 This was said in 1832. The passage pro- 
 claims the reign of law throughout this in- 
 finite universe through all space, through 
 all time; in all kingdoms; but implies the 
 possibility of departure from law. But "to 
 every law there are certain bounds also and 
 conditions!" A bold conception this; espe- 
 cially three-quarters of a century ago ; yet it 
 is approved by man's experience. TKe 
 power of ocean currents and the winds to 
 carry with them objects in the direction of 
 their movement is overcome by another 
 force or law the power of steam ; the force 
 of gravitation, by the levitating power of gas ; 
 the natural tendency of water to seek its 
 level, by the levitating power of heat and 
 the absorbing power of the atmosphere, are 
 hurriedly chosen examples. But this same 
 idea of law itself having metes and bounds, 
 or "law itself being subject to law," Henry 
 Drummond, one of the recognized great 
 thinkers of the nineteenth century, more 
 than half a century after our Prophet, de- 
 clared to be "One of the most striking gen- 
 eralizations of recent science." And John 
 42 
 
Fiske said, "In order to be always sure that ^ 
 we are generalizing correctly, we must 
 make the generalizing process itself a sub- 
 ject of generalization." Which is but a rec- 
 ognition of Drummond's idea that "laws 
 have their law;" and Joseph Smith's "To 
 every law there are certain bounds also and 
 conditions." Already I have noted in the 
 passage the implied possibility of the infrac- 
 tion of law ; and the idea of law itself implies 
 the possibility of disorder, which must re- 
 sult from an infraction, that is, a departure 
 from, or violation of, law. But our Prophet 
 said: "That which is governed by law is 
 also preserved by law, and perfected and 
 sanctified by the same. That which break- 
 eth a law, and abideth not by law, but seek- 
 eth to become a law unto itself, and willeth 
 to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in 
 sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by 
 mercy, justice, nor judgment." From s all 
 which one is to conclude that evil is subject 
 to law as well as good, that is, it cannot re- 
 main evil and yet produce the effects of 
 good. Our Prophet teaches, then, that 
 through all eternity the infinite universe has 
 been, and is, and will be, subject to law ; but 
 that "to every law there are certain bounds 
 also and conditions." 
 
 43 
 
JOSEPH ^>, HANGE AND ITS TENDENCY: 
 As to movement and change in this 
 
 ^-^ infinite universe, our Prophet repre- 
 sents God as saying: 
 
 "Worlds without number have I created. 
 * * * Behold, there are many worlds 
 that have passed away by the word of my 
 power, and there are many that now stand, 
 and innumerable are they to man. * * * 
 The heavens, they are many, and they can- 
 not be numbered unto man ; * * * and 
 as one earth shall pass away, and the heav- 
 ens thereof, even so shall another come, and 
 there is no end to my works, neither to my 
 words." 
 
 This passage implies constant movement 
 in this infinite universe. The statement, 
 "As one earth shall pass away and the heav- 
 ens thereof, even so shall another come," 
 corresponds somewhat to the modern sci- 
 entist's notion of "evolution and devolu- 
 tion." Also with his statement that "Sub- 
 stance is everywhere and always in uninter- 
 rupted movement and transformation; no- 
 where is there perfect repose and rigidity; 
 yet the infinite quantity of matter and of 
 eternally changing force remains constant." 
 And now I must ask you to accept a some- 
 what hurriedly stated conclusion as to the 
 effect of these changes going on in the uni- 
 verse, gathered, indeed, from the teaching 
 of our Prophet, but without specific quota- 
 
 44 
 
tion, namely, that the tendency of this move- THE 
 ment in the universe, the organization and PROPHET- 
 then the disintegration of worlds and world- TEACHER 
 systems is in the direction of the develop- 
 ment of, and for the increase of the power 
 and glory of truly immortal Intelligences. 
 This conclusion is required by the philos- 
 ophy of Joseph Smith. 
 
 THE EXISTENCE OF GOOD AND 
 EVIL: Respecting Good and Evil, 
 our Prophet taught: "There must 
 needs be an opposition in all things. If it 
 were not so, righteousness could not be 
 brought to pass; nor wickedness, nor holi- 
 ness, nor misery; neither good nor bad, 
 therefore, all things must needs be [in the 
 absence of these opposite existences] a com- 
 pound in one." 
 
 It will require but little reflection to es- 
 tablish the truth of this doctrine. Good im- 
 plies its opposite, evil. Law, which carries 
 with it the idea of order, implies disorder, 
 and takes measures against it. We become 
 conscious of the truth of the doctrine here 
 announced at every turn. In the astron- 
 omic order it is seen in the centripetal and 
 centrifugal forces the holding together 
 and the flying apart forces. In chemistry it 
 is manifest in the composing and decom- 
 posing forces ; in positive and negative elec- 
 tricity. It is seen in light and darkness; 
 
 45 
 
JOSEPH heat, cold; movement, repose; joy, sorrow; 
 
 SMITH pleasure, pain ; and so following. Our Proph- 
 et's teaching on this line runs to the extent 
 that existence itself is made to depend up- 
 on it, this antinomy of things. Listen : 
 
 "And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall 
 also say there is no sin. If ye shall say 
 there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no 
 righteousness. And if there is no righteous- 
 ness there is no happiness. And if there is 
 no righteousness nor happiness, there is no 
 punishment nor misery. And if these things 
 are not, there is no God. And if there is no 
 God, we are not, neither the earth ; for there 
 could have been no creation of things; 
 neither to act, nor to be acted upon." 
 
 Have you ever thought what a dreadful 
 world this would be without this duality 
 the opposite existences here contended for? 
 Imagine all things in the world to be white ! 
 No contrasts in coloring ! Universal insanity 
 must result. The "dread of sinking into 
 naught" is matched by the dread of having 
 things resolved into a "compound of one." 
 The absence of this necessary "opposition in 
 all things" is well put, by a very recent phil- 
 osophical writer, in these terms : 
 
 "Evil exists in the balance of natural 
 forces. * * * It is also the background 
 of good, the incentive to good, and the trial 
 46 
 
of good, without which good could not be. THE 
 As the virtue of courage could not exist PROPHET- 
 without the evil of danger, and as the virtue TEACHER 
 of sympathy could not exist without the 
 evil of suffering, so no other virtue could 
 exist without its corresponding evil. In a 
 world without evil if such a world be re- 
 ally conceivable, all men would have per- 
 fect health, perfect intelligence, and perfect 
 morals. No one could gain or impart infor- 
 mation, each one's cup of knowledge being 
 full. The temperature would stand forever 
 at 70 degrees, both heat and cold [in excess] 
 being evil. There could be no progress, 
 since progress is the overcoming of evil. A 
 world without evil would be as toil without 
 exertion, as light without darkness, as a bat- 
 tle with no antagonist. It would be a world 
 without meaning." 
 
 The German philosopher Kant put the same 
 thought in beautiful form when he said, in 
 substance : The dove, as she speeds her way 
 through the air, may marvel at the resist- 
 ance to her flight by the atmosphere, but we 
 know that but for that resistance she could 
 not fly at all. So far Kant. Applied, the 
 conclusion would be: As the resistance of 
 the air to the flight of the dove, so is evil to 
 the progress of Intelligences. 
 
 [In the December number, 1908, of the 
 "Cosmopolitan Magazine," I find the fol- 
 lowing reflections, by Mr. Ambrose Bierce, 
 
 47 
 
JOSEPH on the point here discussed; and while not 
 SMITH accepting, without modification, every 
 thought expressed, I consider the passage 
 too pertinent, and too rich to be denied ad- 
 mittance into these pages : 
 
 "Let us for a moment suppose this country's 
 reformers to have achieved their amiable pur- 
 pose their purposes, rather, for these are as 
 the leaves of the forest, and no two alike. We 
 have, then, a country in which are no poverty, 
 no contention, no tyranny nor oppression, 
 no peril to life or limb, no disease and so 
 forth. How delightful! What a good and 
 happy people! Alas, no! With poverty 
 have vanished benevolence, providence, and 
 the foresight which, born of the fear of in- 
 dividual want, stands guard at a thousand 
 gates to defend the general good. The 
 charitable impulse is dead in every breast, 
 and gratitude, atrophied by disuse, has no 
 longer a place among human sentiments and 
 emotions. With no more fighting among 
 ourselves we have lost the power of resent- 
 ment and resistance : a car-load of Mexicans 
 or a shipful of Japanese can invade our fool's 
 paradise and enslave us, as the Spaniards 
 overran Peru and the British subdued India. 
 (Hailers of "the dawn of the new era" will, I 
 trust, provide that it dawns everywhere at 
 once or here last of all.) Having no oppres- 
 sion to resist and no perils to apprehend, we 
 no longer need the courage to defy, nor the 
 4 8 
 
fortitude to endure. Heroism is a failing TH JL WFT 
 memory and magnanimity a dream of the ^ 
 past; for not only are the virtues known by 
 contrast with the vices, they spring from 
 the same seed, grow in the same soil, ripen 
 in the same sunshine, and perish in the same 
 frost. A fine race of mollycoddles we should 
 be without our sins and sufferings! In a 
 world without evils there would be one su- 
 preme evil existence. We need not fear 
 any such condition. Progress is infected 
 with the germs of reversion; on the grave 
 of the civilization of today will squat the 
 barbarian of tomorrow, "with a glory in his 
 bosom" that will transfigure him the day 
 after. The alternation is one that we can 
 neither hasten nor retard, for our success 
 baffles us. If, for example, we could abolish 
 war, disease, and famine, the race would 
 multiply to the point of "standing room 
 only" a condition prophesying war, dis- 
 ease, and famine. Wherefore the wisest 
 prayer is this, "O Lord, make thy servant 
 strong to fight and impotent to prevail."] 
 "Moral evil," then, is not a created thing. 
 It is one of the eternal existences, just as 
 duration is and space. It is as old as law 
 old as Truth, old as this eternal universe. 
 Intelligences must adjust themselves to 
 these eternal existences; this, the measure of 
 their duty. 
 
 49 
 
JOSEPH /TpHE INTELLIGENT ENTITY: Of 
 man's spirit, called often by other 
 names "mind," "intelligence," "ego," 
 "self;" but by whatever name it is called, and 
 all nice distinctions set aside, here I mean 
 that conscious, self-determining entity, 
 which thinks, reasons, wills, loves, aspires 
 I mean the real man. Let us in our dis- 
 course call him spirit. Of man, then, thus 
 understood, our Prophet taught: 
 
 "The soul the mind of man the immortal 
 spirit where did it come from? All learned 
 men and doctors of divinity say that God 
 created it in the beginning ; but it is not so ; 
 the very idea lessens man in my estimation. 
 I do not believe the doctrine. I know bet- 
 ter. * * * We say that God himself is 
 a self-existent Being. Who told you so ? It 
 is correct enough, but how did it get into 
 your heads? Who told you that man did 
 not exist in like manner, upon the same 
 principles? * * * Is it logical to say 
 that the intelligence of spirits is immortal, 
 and yet that it had a beginning? The intel- 
 ligence of spirits had no beginning, neither 
 will it have an end. * * * There never 
 was a time when there were not spirits; for 
 they are co-eternal with our Father in 
 heaven. * * * The spirit of man is not 
 a created being; it existed from eternity, 
 and will exist to eternity." 
 50 
 
Man, then, in the Prophet's philosophy, is THE 
 not a created, but a self-existent entity, one PROPHET- 
 of the eternal things; not created, really un- TEACHER 
 creatable, as also indestructible. Not of 
 earth origin, but existing in heavens with- 
 out number, brother to all Intelligences 
 brother to the Christ with the rest. "I was 
 in the beginning with the Father," our 
 Prophet represents the Christ as saying "I 
 was in the beginning with the Father. * 
 
 * * Ye [the brethren present when the 
 revelation was given] were also in the be- 
 ginning with the Father, that which is spirit. 
 
 * * * Man [the race] was also in the be- 
 ginning with God. Intelligence was not 
 created or made, neither indeed can be." 
 
 But while these spirits or intelligent en- 
 tities may be equal as to their eternity, they 
 differ in the degree of intelligence so our 
 Prophet teaches: Where two things exist, 
 one higher than another, there may be an- 
 other thing higher yet. Where two things 
 exist, one superior to another, there may be 
 another still superior, and so on. So where 
 two spirits exist, one being more intelligent 
 than the other, there may be another more 
 intelligent than the first. Yet, notwith- 
 standing this difference in degree of intelli- 
 gence, they are equal as to their eternity. 
 "They existed before," said our Prophet, 
 "they shall have no end; they shall exist 
 after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal." 
 
 51 
 
JOSEPH It is this difference in Intelligences that 
 SMITH leads to order in this universe of ours. 
 The more advanced Intelligences govern- 
 ing, controlling, devising, organizing, form- 
 ing societies, making governments all 
 which shall tend to increase the glory and 
 power and joy of Intelligences; to this end 
 bringing into existence what we call worlds, 
 world-systems, guiding them through im- 
 mense cycles of time, and through processes 
 that lead from chaos to cosmos, from teles- 
 tial to celestial, and when attaining a point 
 beyond which they may not be exalted in 
 their present forms, breaking those forms, 
 disintegrating them, throwing them back 
 these baser material things, not Intelligences 
 back to chaos, to be brought forth again 
 to reach a grander cosmos worlds without 
 number have thus passed away, by the word 
 of God's power, and many now stand, innu- 
 merable unto man ; and as one earth and its 
 heavens shall pass away, so shall another 
 come, and there is no end to these works, 
 this evolution and this devolution. And so 
 the eternal drama proceeds. Intelligences 
 meanwhile standing unhurt amidst this or- 
 ganization and disorganization of worlds; 
 these integrating and disintegrating ele- 
 ments, this movement from lower to higher 
 forms, from little to greater excellences ; yet 
 this without attaining to "highest" or "per- 
 fect," because advancing in the infinite, 
 52 
 
which knows no ultimates. Meanwhile In- 
 telligences, amid these changes, under the 
 law of eternal progress, are ever-increasing TEA CHER 
 in power, glory, might, dominion, love, ben- 
 evolence, charity, justice, and all else that 
 can make for the increase of their power and 
 glory. In which strivings and achievements 
 eternal evil is present ; makes necessary and 
 possible, in fact, the very strivings and 
 achievements; and is the "foil on which 
 good produces itself, and becomes known." 
 
 THE RELATIONSHIP OF INTEL- 
 LIGENCES : It is seen that our Proph- 
 et taught the eternity of Intelli- 
 gences; and that they are not only not cre- 
 ated, but uncreatable ; that though they dif- 
 fer in degree of intelligence, of knowledge, 
 of love, hence differ also in power, in influ- 
 ence, in glory in all that comes from soul 
 power. The presiding Intelligence to that 
 order of things and beings to which we be- 
 long, is represented as standing among the 
 Intelligences destined to our earth, "and 
 among these there were many of the noble 
 and great ones." And the Presiding Intel- 
 ligence said: "These I will make my Rulers; 
 for He stood among those that were spirits, 
 and He saw that they were good." "The 
 noble and great ones" are made Rulers; and 
 doubtless the principle here operating in re- 
 spect of those Intelligences destined to our 
 
 53 
 
JOSEPH earth, operates in all worlds and world sys- 
 SMITH terns. Some of the "Noble and Great Ones" 
 stand at the head of worlds and groups of 
 worlds, forming Grand Presidencies, in or- 
 der and gradation based upon their power 
 and appointment. All which is dependent 
 upon their intelligence, their character, their 
 nobility and greatness measured by their 
 capacity to serve. Each one of such "Rulers" 
 and each Intelligence, in fact independ- 
 ent in the sphere in which he is appointed to 
 act, yet acting in harmony, through at- 
 tainment of the knowledge of Truth, 
 with all other exalted and sanctified souls 
 these are Gods, or the Rulers in this 
 Universe. These make up David's "con- 
 gregation of the Mighty," in which God, 
 "More intelligent than them all," stand- 
 eth and judgeth "among the Gods." 
 (Psalms 82 : 1.) And to these, in their several 
 stations, other Intelligences owe loyalty, 
 submission call it worship if you like; at 
 any rate it must be unshaken loyalty, in or- 
 der to attain the ends proposed in all "plans 
 of salvation," "gospels," "societies," "king- 
 doms of God," and the like,in which "plans," 
 "gospels" and the rest, each spirit agreed 
 and covenanted to accept, as also to obey 
 and honor those appointed to direct and 
 bring to pass that which was ordained in the 
 councils of Divine Intelligences. "At the 
 first organization in heaven," said the 
 
 54 
 
Prophet, speaking with reference to matters THE 
 pertaining to our earth, and the probation PROPHET- 
 of spirits upon it in earth-life "at the first TEACHER 
 organization in heaven we were all present, 
 and saw the Savior chosen and appointed, 
 and the plan of salvation made, and we 
 sanctioned it.". This the meaning of "man 
 [the race] was also in the beginning with 
 God." And as to the "Rulers," "Presiden- 
 cies" they are not "Rulers" in the worldly 
 sense of those words. "Government" here, 
 "office" in the "kingdom of God," means op- 
 portunity for service, not of mastery. "Ye 
 know that the princes of the Gentiles exer- 
 cise dominion over them, and they that are 
 great exercise authority upon them. But 
 it shall not be so among you. But who- 
 soever would be great among you, let him 
 be your minister; and whosoever will be 
 chief among you, let him be your servant; 
 even as the Son of Man came not to be min- 
 istered unto, but to minister, and to give 
 His life a ransom for many." So Joseph 
 Smith : "The powers of heaven can only be 
 controlled upon the principles of righteous- 
 ness. When men undertake to cover their 
 sins or to gratify their pride or vain ambition 
 or exercise control or dominion or compul- 
 sion upon the souls of the children of men in 
 any degree of unrighteousness, the heavens 
 withdraw themselves, the spirit of the Lord 
 is grieved, and when it is withdrawn, amen 
 
 55 
 
JOSEPH to t* 16 authority of that man. No power or 
 SMITH influence can or ought to be maintained by 
 virtue of the Priesthood, only by persuasion, 
 by long suffering, by gentleness, and meek- 
 ness, and by love unfeigned; by kindness, 
 and pure knowledge, which shall greatly en- 
 large the soul, without hypocrisy, and with- 
 out guile." 
 This, the principle of heavenly rule. 
 
 MAN'S FREEDOM: Through all 
 that is here set forth as Joseph 
 Smith's doctrines, it will be seen 
 that the free moral agency of man is 
 regarded as a reality. First, the recog- 
 nition of man, as a spirit, being a self- 
 existent entity not a created thing ; "man 
 [i. e , all men, the race] was in the 
 beginning with God. Intelligence, or the 
 light of truth, was not created or made, 
 neither indeed can be." Then second, "All 
 truth is independent in that sphere in which 
 God has placed it, to act for itself, as all 
 Intelligence also, otherwise there is no ex- 
 istence. Behold, here is the agency of man, 
 and here is the condemnation of man, be- 
 cause that which was from the beginning 
 is plainly manifest unto them, and they re- 
 ceive not the light. And every man, whose 
 spirit receiveth not the light, is under con- 
 demnation, for man is spirit." 
 The fact of free moral agency runs through 
 56 
 
all the Prophet's revelations in similar spirit. THE 
 Indeed, in one scripture he represents the pR O p] 
 chief sin of Lucifer as being an attempt to 
 "destroy the agency of man ;" and for which 
 he was driven forth from heaven. The ef- 
 fect of these two doctrines, the recognition 
 of the spirit of man as an eternal being, and 
 his being a free moral agent, is tremendous 
 in accounting for things. Elsewhere, con- 
 trasting this view of things with some mod- 
 ern Christian views, I have said: As mat- 
 ters now stand, the usually accepted Chris- 
 tian doctrine on the matter of man's origin 
 is that God of His free-will created men. 
 That they are as He would have them, since 
 in His act of creation He could have had 
 them different if He had so minded. Then 
 why should He being infinitely wise and 
 infinitely powerful, and infinitely good for 
 so the creeds represent Him why should 
 He create by mere act of volition, beings 
 such as men are, not only capable of, but 
 prone to, moral Evil? Which, in the last 
 analysis of things, in spite of all special 
 pleadings to the contrary, leaves responsi- 
 bility for moral Evil with God? God's cre- 
 ative acts culminating thus, the next perti- 
 nent questions are: Then what of the de- 
 creed purpose of God to punish moral Evil? 
 And what of the much-vaunted justice of x 
 God in that punishment? Wherein lies the 
 just responsibility of man if he was so cre- 
 
 57 
 
JOSEPH ated as to love Evil and to follow it?" It is 
 SMITH revolting to reason, as it is shocking to piety, 
 to think that God, of His own free will, cre- 
 ated some men, not only inclined to wick- 
 edness, but desperately so inclined; while 
 others He, of His own volition, created with 
 dispositions naturally inclined toward good- 
 ness. In like manner stands it with man in 
 relation to his inclination to faith, and to 
 unbelief ; and yet, under the orthodox belief 
 all are included under one law for judgment ! 
 On the other hand, under the conception of 
 the existence of independent, uncreated, 
 self-existent Intelligences, who by the inher- 
 ent nature of them are of various degrees 
 of intelligence, doubtless differing from each 
 other in many ways, yet alike in their eter- 
 nity and their freedom; with God standing 
 in the midst of them, "more intelligent than 
 them all," and proposing the betterment of 
 their condition progress to higher levels of 
 being, and power through change under 
 this conception of things, how stand mat- 
 ters? Why, ever present through all 
 changes, through all the processes of better- 
 ment, is the self-existent entity of the "In- 
 telligence" with the tremendous fact of his 
 consciousness and his moral freedom, and 
 his indestructibility he has his choice of 
 moving upward or downward in every estate 
 he occupies; often defeating, for a time, at 
 least, even the benevolent purposes of God 
 58 
 
respecting him, through his own perverse- THE 
 ness; he passes through dire experiences, PROPHET- 
 suffers terribly, yet learns by what he suf- TEACHER 
 fers, so that his very suffering becomes a 
 means to his improvement; he learns swift- 
 ly or slowly, according to the inherent na- 
 ture of him, obedience to law ; he learns that 
 "that which is governed by law is also pre- 
 served by law, and perfected and sanctified 
 by the same; and that which breaketh the 
 law and abideth not by law, but seeketh to 
 become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide 
 in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by 
 mercy, justice nor judgment. Therefore 
 they must remain filthy still." This con- 
 ception of things relieves God of the respon- 
 sibility for the nature and status of intelli- 
 gences in all stages of their development; 
 their inherent nature and their volition 
 makes them primarily what they are, and 
 this nature they may change, slowly, per- 
 haps, yet change it they may. God has put 
 them in the way of changing it, by enlarging 
 their intelligence through change of en- 
 vironment, through experiences; the only 
 way God effects these self-existent beings is 
 favorably; He creates not their inherent na- 
 ture ; He is not responsible for the use they 
 make of their freedom ; nor is He the author 
 of their sufferings when they fall into sin: 
 that arises out of the violations of law, to 
 which the "Intelligence" subscribed, and 
 
 59 
 
JOSEPH must be endured until the lessons of obedi- 
 
 SMITH ence to law are learned. 
 
 This conception of the order of things, as 
 to the existence of "Intelligences" and in 
 the moral government of the world, discov- 
 ers a harmony in that government which at 
 once challenges our admiration, and bears 
 evidence of its truth. 
 
 ETERNITY OF RELATIONSHIPS: 
 Matching these eternal things, an 
 eternal universe, eternal spirit entities, 
 eternal good, with its background of eternal 
 evil, eternal law, agency and the like, is 
 the Prophet's doctrine of eternal relations. 
 Intelligences are begotten spirits; spirits 
 are begotten men and women; these be- 
 come resurrected and Exalted personages, 
 spirit and element in them being eternally 
 united, whence proceeds the fulness of joy, 
 and glory, and power. The Prophet taught 
 that these relations, under which such beget- 
 tings proceed in celestial worlds, are them- 
 selves eternal. The marriage covenant which 
 united immortal beings is eternal, hence the 
 eternity of the marriage covenant which 
 Joseph Smith introduced in our dispensa- 
 tion, called the "New and Everlasting Cov- 
 enant of Marriage," by which marriages, 
 under the law of God, are made in our sa- 
 cred places for time and eternity. Thus the 
 relationships of exalted Intelligences is also 
 60 
 
a thing regulated and sanctified by law; THE 
 and from these relations come the fam- PK 
 ily, a permanent, eternal institution ; whence 
 spring, also, all other relationships ex- 
 isting among the exalted Intelligences of 
 all worlds and world-systems ; until, indeed, 
 all are bound and united together in bonds 
 of relationships founded on mutual cov- 
 enants and agreements, and sanctified by 
 love and sympathy. 
 
 We may not persue this division of our sub- 
 ject further now. I merely call your atten- 
 tion to these doctrines of the Prophet, with- 
 out making any attempt to weave them 
 into a system of philosophy of things, or of 
 sentient existences ; but I am persuaded that 
 these doctrines set forth by the Prophet- 
 Teacher of our dispensation, not indeed as 
 the result of his own, human meditation, 
 but based upon knowledge which God re- 
 vealed to him therefore, coming with di- 
 vine sanction I am persuaded, I say, that 
 these doctrines contain the elements of a 
 physical, moral and spiritual philosophy that 
 will be the accepted philosophy of the New 
 Age now dawning upon our world; a philo- 
 sophy that will supersede all other philoso- 
 phies and remain steadfast in both the be- 
 liefs and affections of mankind. The ele- 
 ments, I say, are here in these doctrines; 
 they await only some future Spencer to 
 weave them into synthetic completeness, 
 
 61 
 
EPH that shall be as beautiful as it will be true, 
 to make that philosophy acceptable to the 
 higher intellects of our age. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE PROPHET'S GENERALIZA- 
 TIONS. 
 
 A WORD in relation to the manner 
 of the Prophet's teaching. It was 
 unique in its way. He may scarce- 
 ly be said to have made any attempt at cre- 
 ating a system of philosophy however 
 much may be said for his system of religion 
 and of ecclesiastical government. His phil- 
 osophical principles were flung off in utter- 
 ances without reference to any arrangement 
 or orderly sequence; and in the main were 
 taught in independent aphorisms, which is 
 a remarkably effective way of teaching, for 
 an aphorism resembles the proverb, and is 
 a form in which Truth is bound to live. It 
 is the American philosopher Emerson, I 
 think, who describes a proverb to be the 
 language of absolute Truth the statement 
 of Truth without qualification. It is the lit- 
 erature of power. Fortunate, indeed, is the 
 man who gives a people or nation a proverb ; 
 and so, too, is the nation or people fortunate 
 who receive it. Like mercy, it is twice 
 blessed, it blesseth him that gives and him 
 that takes. Usually proverbs are produced 
 62 
 
by a race's experience. Proverbs come up 
 out of the tribulations of a people. They are PROP 
 produced slowly and represent the hived 
 wisdom of the ages. Books of proverbs are 
 not written by men, to whom they are some- 
 times ascribed, they represent a collection 
 slowly produced through centuries. Such 
 are the proverbs of our Bible; proverbs of 
 the Chinese classics; and the proverbs of 
 the Hindoo literature. Joseph Smith gave 
 to his age many of these generalized truths, 
 more, I think, than has fallen to the lot of 
 any other teacher, save Jesus, the Christ. I 
 can but repeat a few of these as examples: 
 
 "The glory of God is intelligence." 
 
 "It is impossible for a man to be saved in 
 ignorance." 
 
 "A man is saved no faster than he gets 
 knowledge." 
 
 "Knowledge saves a man, and in the world 
 of spirits no man can be exalted but by 
 knowledge." 
 
 "Whatsoever principle of intelligence we 
 attain unto in this life will rise with us in 
 the resurrection." 
 
 "If one man, by his diligence, obtains more 
 knowledge than another, he will have so 
 much the advantage in the world to come." 
 
 "There is a law irrevocably decreed in 
 heaven before the foundations of this world, 
 upon which all blessings are predicated ; and 
 
 63 
 
JOSEPH when we obtain any blessing from God, it is 
 SMITH by obedience to that law on which it is pred- 
 icated." 
 
 "Adam fell that man might be, and men 
 are that they might have joy." 
 
 "This is the glory of God to bring to 
 pass the immortality and the eternal life of 
 man." 
 
 "The elements are eternal, yea, the ele- 
 ments are the tabernacle of God. Man is 
 the tabernacle of God, even temples." 
 
 "The elements are eternal, and spirit and 
 element, inseparably united, receive a ful- 
 ness of joy [Hence the importance of man's 
 earth life in which spirit is united to earthly 
 elements.] 
 
 "If men do not comprehend the character 
 of God, they do not comprehend them- 
 selves." 
 
 "God Himself was once as we are now ; and 
 Is an exalted Man ; for Adam was created in 
 the very fashion, image and likeness of 
 God." 
 
 "The spirit of man is not a created being; 
 it existed from eternity, and will exist to 
 eternity. Anything created cannot be eter- 
 nal." 
 
 "The spirit and the body is the soul of man; 
 and the resurrection from the dead is the 
 redemption of the soul." 
 
 "It is the first principle of the Gospel to 
 Imow for a certainty the character of God, 
 64 
 
and to know that we may converse with THE 
 Him as one man converses with another." PROPHET- 
 
 "Jesus was in the beginning with the Path- TEACHER 
 er. * * * Man was also in the begin- 
 ning with God. Intelligence, or the light of 
 truth, was not created or made, neither in- 
 deed can be." 
 
 "Jesus treads in the footsteps of His Fath- 
 er, and inherits what God did before; and 
 God is thus glorified and exalted in the sal- 
 vation and exaltation of all His children." 
 
 "The things of God are of deep import ; and 
 time and experience and careful and ponder- 
 ous and solemn thoughts can only find them 
 out. Thy mind, O man, if thou wilt lead a soul 
 unto salvation, must stretch as high as the 
 utmost heavens and search into and contem- 
 plate the darkest abyss and the broad ex- 
 panse of eternity thou must commune with 
 God!" 
 
 The Prophet represents God as saying: "I 
 give unto men weaknesses that they might 
 be humble, and my grace is sufficient for all 
 those who humble themselves before me." 
 
 To one who inquired how he governed 
 men so well, he said: "I do not govern 
 them: I teach men correct principles, and 
 they govern themselves." 
 
 These sayings, with many others of like 
 character, in the future literature of Amer- 
 ica, philosophical and religious, will make 
 
 65 
 
JOSEPH its pages blaze with glory. They are des- 
 tined to become generally accepted princi- 
 ples of truth. They will become household 
 aphorisms. They are words spoken by in- 
 spiration of God. They come from what 
 Carlyle calls, "the inner Fact of things." 
 They will live to influence the future gen- 
 erations of America, and of men every- 
 where. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 AN AMERICAN PROPHET. 
 
 AMERICA THE "OLD WORLD:" 
 There is one more thought I would 
 like to present to you respecting this 
 Prophet, Joseph Smith. He is pre-eminent- 
 ly the American Prophet. He is not the 
 "boy prophet ;" I dislike that term. He is not 
 the "Prophet of Palmyra;" he is the Prophet 
 of the dispensation of the fulness of times; 
 if localized at all he must be known as the 
 "American Prophet." 
 
 Never was greater mistake made than to 
 suppose that the disciples of Joseph Smith 
 could be unpatriotic Americans. They must 
 be ardently patriotic Americans. That this 
 is true, let me a little show it. A line in one 
 of our hymns runs: 
 
 "For in Adam-ondi-Ahman, 
 Zion rose where Eden was." 
 
 66 
 
What is the meaning of this? It means that THE 
 the Prophet taught that the American con- PROPHET- 
 tinents are not the New World, but the Old; TEACHER 
 that Eden was here in America. Adam- 
 ondi-Ahman, the place where Adam dwelt 
 after being driven from Eden, the Prophet 
 declared to be in Missouri, in the valley of 
 the Grand River. He represents a gathering 
 together there of the patriarchs of the ante- 
 diluvian age: and tells how they blessed 
 Adam, or "Michael," the "Ancient of Days;" 
 and Adam rose among them and blessed the 
 patriarchs, his posterity, and told what 
 should befall them to their latest genera- 
 tions. 
 
 Among the Patriarchs Enoch was pre-emi- 
 nent for righteousness. He, in this western 
 hemisphere, founded a city, sanctified it, 
 and called it "Zion," the abode of the pure 
 in heart; "for this is Zion" wherein that 
 word relates to a people "the pure in 
 heart." Hence "Zion rose where Eden 
 was," here in America. But in the course 
 of time "Enoch walked with God: and he 
 was not; for God took him." That is, ac- 
 cording to Paul, God translated him, that he 
 should not see death (Gen. v; Heb. xi) ; and 
 according to Joseph Smith, this happened to 
 his city also ; hence the saying, "Zion's fled." 
 
 Then after the Flood, the Lord led to 
 these Western continents the Jaredite colony 
 from the Euphrates valley; and sixteen cen- 
 
 67 
 
JOSEPH turies later the Nephite colony from Jeru- 
 SMITH salem. In each case the Lord declared to 
 the peoples so led to the Western world 
 that it was "a choice land above all 
 other lands." The Savior, in the most 
 glorious manner, after His resurrection 
 from the dead, visited these blessed West- 
 ern Continents and declared that here 
 should be built a Holy City by the united 
 efforts of the house of Israel, chiefly 
 the descendants of the Patriarch Joseph, of 
 Egyptian fame, and the Gentile races who 
 have right to an inheritance in the land ; and 
 the City should be called "Zion," a "New 
 Jerusalem." The "Zion" from which "the 
 law should go forth," as the word of the 
 Lord should go forth from Old Jerusalem. 
 Because of the future establishment of this 
 city, of Zion, upon these western continents, 
 as also on account of Enoch's Zion, they are 
 called the "Land of Zion." 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 
 UNITED STATES INSPIRED OF 
 GOD : Joseph Smith also taught that 
 the Constitution of the United States was 
 a God-inspired instrument. "It is not right," 
 he represents the Lord as saying, "that one 
 man should be in bondage to another ;" and 
 hence the Constitution should be maintained 
 for the preservation of the rights, and the 
 protection of all flesh, "according to just and 
 
 68 
 
holy principles, that every man may act in THE 
 doctrine and principle, pertaining to futur- PROP] 
 ity, according to the moral agency which I TEAC] 
 [the Lord] have given unto him, that every 
 man may be accountable for his own sins in 
 the day of judgment. And for this purpose 
 have I established the Constitution of this 
 land by the hands of wise men whom I 
 raised up unto this very purpose." 
 So Joseph Smith's disciples hold the Con- 
 stitution of the United States to be inspired 
 of God. I think sometimes, however, that we 
 do not realize all that this truth means. We 
 are apt to think of things in mass, and do 
 not take the time to analyze them. What 
 does it mean to say that the Constitution of 
 the United States is an inspired instrument? 
 Undoubtedly, it means primarily that God 
 recognizes the right of the people, in their 
 political capacity, to govern themselves. It 
 expresses the divine belief, so to speak, in 
 the capacity of man for self-government. It 
 means that the people in their political af- 
 fairs are sovereign ; for this is the chief thing 
 which distinguishes the American govern- 
 ment from other political systems of govern- 
 ment. We are not always happy in our 
 forms of expression. We do not make our 
 terminology always meet our ideas. In 
 spite of the fact just alluded to viz., the 
 people are sovereign, we talk of, and pray 
 for, "those who rule over us," meaning pres- 
 
 69 
 
>H idents, cabinets, senators, governors, , and 
 the like; but these are not "rulers," they 
 are the people's servants, elected for a lim- 
 ited time to administer government accord- 
 ing to law, under the provisions of our Con- 
 stitution; but they serve, they do not rule. 
 The people are sovereign, and the people 
 alone are rulers, and they appoint or elect 
 their servants. Moreover, this Constitution 
 provides for the freedom of the press; for 
 freedom of speech; for freedom and inde- 
 pendence of the individual. It guarantees re- 
 ligious liberty, hence a free church, as well as 
 a free state, each independent of and separate 
 from the other. The government is an in- 
 destructible Union, composed of indestruct- 
 ible States. To hold that the Constitution 
 which provides for these things, is inspired 
 of God, is to hold that each of these separate 
 things, as well as the thing in mass, is or- 
 dained of God by the hands of wise men 
 whom He raised up to establish this system 
 of government; and to deny to the people 
 the enjoyment of these several rights, to 
 undertake, by any means whatsoever, to 
 thwart the realization of government by the 
 people, to attempt to defeat the expression 
 of their will, or make it result different from 
 what their untrammeled judgment would 
 have it, is to make an infraction upon the 
 things that have been ordained of God. 
 In the above quotation concerning the sys- 
 70 
 
tern of Government established by the Con- 
 stitution of the United States being inspired 
 of God, we may discern the purpose of God 
 in the establishment of such a government. 
 That purpose is that every man may become 
 directly and personally responsible to God 
 for his actions in matters relating to civil 
 government "that every man may be ac- 
 countable for his own sins in the day of 
 judgment." The principle is, however, more 
 fully developed in the Book of Mormon than 
 in the quotation here considered. The in- 
 cident which develops the principle occurs 
 in the reign of the first Mosiah, and at a 
 period that corresponds with the latter half 
 of the second century B. C. The old king 
 proposed to his people a revolution in the 
 form of government by which monarchy 
 should be abandoned and a republican form 
 of government established in its place. In 
 urging this revolutionary measure the good 
 king said : 
 
 THE 
 
 PROPHET 
 
 TEACHER 
 
 "It is not common that the voice of the 
 people desireth anything contrary to that 
 which is right; but it is common for the 
 lesser part of the people to desire that which 
 is not right; therefore this shall ye observe, 
 and make it your law, to do your business by 
 the voice of the people. And if the time 
 comes that the voice of the people doth 
 choose iniquity, then is the time that the 
 
 71 
 
JOSEPH 
 
 SMITH Judgments f God will come upon you, 
 yea, then is the time He will visit you with 
 great destruction, even as He has hitherto 
 visited this land. * * * And I com- 
 mand you to do these things in the fear of 
 the Lord; and I command you to do these 
 things, and that ye have no king; that if these 
 people commit sins and iniquities, they shall 
 be answered upon their own heads. For be- 
 hold, I say unto you, the sins of many people 
 have been caused by the iniquities of their 
 kings; therefore their iniquities are an- 
 swered upon the heads of their kings. And 
 now I desire that this inequality should be 
 no more in this land, especially among this 
 my people; but I desire that this be a land 
 of liberty, that every man may enjoy his 
 rights and privileges alike, so long as the 
 Lord sees fit that we may live and inherit 
 the land; yea, even as long as any of our 
 posterity remains upon the face of the land." 
 
 But in order that this element of moral re- 
 sponsibility may be brought into civil gov- 
 ernment, it stands to reason that every indi- 
 vidual must be free and untrammeled in the 
 exercise of his political duties, including the 
 casting of his vote. Each individual must 
 have an equal voice in the government. Ev- 
 ery man must be a sovereign in the civil in- 
 stitution, and his vote must represent the 
 voice and judgment of a free man. A vote 
 72 
 
unawed by influence, and uncoerced by any THE 
 power whatsoever. Less than this would * 
 convert the whole scheme of government bv 1 
 the voice of the people into mockery. Under 
 a system of government by the people, in or- 
 der to retain the element of moral responsi- 
 bility of the people in civil affairs, there must 
 be no appeal but to the intelligent judgment 
 of the individual. Each man's act must be the 
 act of a free man ; and those who would cor- 
 rupt the electorate of a government where 
 the people rule, or sway it by any other force 
 than by an appeal to reason, would destroy 
 this element of personal, moral responsibil- 
 ity in civil government, and in the case of 
 those of us who accept this book from which 
 I am quoting if we would appeal to any 
 other force than to that of reason or resort 
 to any species of coercion, we would be set- 
 ting ourselves against an order of things 
 that God has ordained. 
 
 Adherence to these principles is pure 
 Americanism. This is constitutional mor- 
 ality. This is both the principle and the 
 policy that will most inure to the perpetua- 
 tion of our free institutions. This is the 
 sheet-anchor of our safety as a nation our 
 surest guarantee of God's favor. The man 
 who promulgated this doctrine of individual, 
 personal responsibility to God in the affairs 
 of civil government, where the people rule, 
 is worthy to be numbered among the great- 
 
 73 
 
JOSEPH est of American statesmen, American 
 SMITH teachers, American prophets ! 
 
 It means a great deal, this idea that the 
 
 Constitution of the United States is inspired 
 
 of God! 
 
 AMERICA FORTIFIED OF GOD 
 AGAINST OTHER NATIONS: Not 
 only did the Prophet teach the doc- 
 trine that the United States Constitution was 
 inspired of God, but he tells us through the 
 Book of Mormon that God has fortified this 
 land against all other nations. I will read 
 you the passage. The Lord said to Lehi : 
 
 "Behold, this land shall be the land of 
 thine inheritance, and the Gentiles shall 
 be blessed upon the land. This land 
 shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, 
 and there shall be no kings upon the land 
 who shall raise up unto the Gentiles. And 
 I will fortify this land against all other na- 
 tions, and he that fighteth against Zion 
 [these continents of the western world] 
 shall perish, saith God; for he that raiseth 
 up a king against me shall perish, for I, the 
 Lord, the King of Heaven, will be their 
 King, and I will be a light unto them forever 
 that hear my words." 
 
 This guarantee, however, this fortifying 
 this land against all other nations, is upon 
 74 
 
a certain condition: the condition that the THE 
 "God of the land, who is Jesus Christ," shall PROPHET- 
 be honored by them. On this head I want TEACHER 
 to read to you a passage from a certain 
 American statesman, that I can easily 
 believe was one of the God-inspired men ap- 
 pointed to assist in the maintenance of 
 true constitutional principles, as others were 
 inspired to found the Constitution. I refer 
 to the great statesman of nationalism, Daniel 
 Webster, who, before the New York His- 
 torical society, in 1852, in his last public ad- 
 dress, said: 
 
 "Unborn ages and visions of glory crowd 
 upon my soul, the realization of all which, 
 however, is in the hands and good pleasure 
 of Almighty God; but, under His divine 
 blessing, it will be dependent on the char- 
 acter and the virtues of ourselves, and of 
 our posterity. If classical history has been 
 found to be, is now, and shall continue to be, 
 the concomitant of free institutions, and 
 of popular eloquence, what a field is open- 
 ing to us for another Herodotus, another 
 Thucydides, and another Livy ! 
 
 "And let me say, gentlemen, that if we and 
 our posterity shall be true to the Christian 
 religion if we and they shall live always in 
 the fear of God, and shall respect His com- 
 mandments if we and they shall maintain 
 just, moral sentiments, and such conscien- 
 
 75 
 
; PH tious convictions of duty as shall control the 
 heart and life we may have the highest 
 hopes of the future fortunes of our country, 
 and if we maintain those institutions of gov- 
 ernment and that political union, exceeding 
 all praise as much as it exceeds all former 
 examples of political associations, we may 
 be sure of one thing that, while our coun- 
 try furnishes materials for a thousand mas- 
 ters of the historic art, it will afford no topic 
 for a Gibbon. It will have no decline and 
 fall. It will go on prospering and to pros- 
 per. 
 
 "But if we and our posterity reject religious 
 instruction and authority, violate the rules 
 of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions 
 of morality, and recklessly destroy the polit- 
 ical Constitution which holds us together, 
 no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe 
 may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our 
 glory in profound obscurity. Should that 
 catastrophe happen, let it have no history! 
 Let the horrible narrative never be written ? 
 Let its fate be like that of the lost books of 
 Livy, which no human eye shall ever read; 
 or the missing Pleiad, of which no man can 
 ever know more, than that it is lost, and 
 lost forever!" 
 
 Such were the sentiments of this patriotic 
 statesman; but the beautiful and flowing 
 76 
 
periods in which he expresses his thought, THE 
 are in no respects better or stronger, or PROPE 
 more patriotic than the rugged utterances TEACHER 
 of Joseph Smith, in whose utterances 
 throughout our sacred books, there is a 
 wealth of pure American sentiment that is 
 the basis of a patriotism that shall yet ex- 
 ceed all praise. 
 
 In view of all that is here set forth, I sub- 
 mit that Joseph Smith was pre-eminently 
 the American Prophet. 
 
 Standing in the midst of these ideas to 
 which we have ascended in thought about 
 this man and his life's work, all which tend 
 to establish his claims as a Prophet "a 
 Teacher sent of God" how unworthy indeed 
 seem the attempts of men to stay his work, 
 or defame his character by their silly 
 misrepresentations! We hear a babel of 
 confused voices coming up from the past, 
 "pelting his memory with their unsavory 
 epithets," but all is vain ; he may not be dis- 
 posed of in such manner. 
 
 Meanwhile, the truths he taught will live 
 to instruct mankind, and of Joseph Smith 
 it will yet be said as Josiah Quincy half 
 predicted sixty-three years ago He influ- 
 enced his countrymen more than any other 
 historical American of his time. 
 
 77