Originally published in B.H. Roberts, Defense of the Faith and the Saints. 2 vols (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1907-1912) 2:491-516.

A discourse at the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Sunday, March 13, 1910. (Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.)

I. Introductory.

Some time ago, within a year at least, a gentleman of some prominence in the public life of our state felt that he had occasion in a public address to allude to our religious faith as a "body of doctrine," and in doing so I think he exhausted his skill in framing an expression of contempt for it. He said:

It is not worth while getting vexed over such expressions as that. They do no harm to our faith, nor to our society--the Church. Such a remark may lead one to wonder if the gentleman, who has some reputation for intelligence, and especially for his ability in following to logical conclusions any investigation he may undertake--I say such a remark may lead one to wonder if the gentleman himself has paid our faith the "cold respect of the passing glance" to which he refers; or has he presumed to pass judgment upon it without even such "a passing glance"--since he assumes with such air-sniffing loftiness and pride of intellect that "no well instructed person"--of which he is one, of course--would give it? For my own part, the only effect that this remark had upon me was to send me back in a half amused frame of mind to see if things pertaining to our creed were really as bad as that; and once more, I examined the foundations of our faith. I returned from that examination with my convictions deepened, with my respect and admiration very much increased for this body of doctrine so contemptuously characterized by this gentleman, and my faith in it strengthened. When called upon, this afternoon, to address you, it seemed to me that I could do you no better service than to give you the benefit of an examination of our faith as a body of doctrine--so far as possible in one sitting; and this holds good whether you be strangers within our gates, or members of the Church.

It is a good thing, occasionally, to recur to first principles, as a means of keeping in view the whole system for which we stand. Every religion must have some sort of philosophy; it must give some accounting for things; some explanation of life and its meaning; some explanation of the universe and whither things trend. Religion must address itself to the understanding as well as to the heart; to the reason as well as to the emotions. Religion has been described by one as "morality touched with emotion" and, in some of its aspects, I think that is a very happy description of religion. But we are living in an age that asks adult questions, and religion must give adult replies. I think our faith is capable of doing that. I love it because it appeals to my understanding as well as to the emotions of my heart; and consequently, when I heard this contemptuous reference to it, I resolved to do what I could by exposition of that faith, to show this gentleman, and those who think with him, how mistaken they were. So now to our task:

II. Mormon View of the Universe.

First, concerning the world itself--I mean by that expression the sum total of things, the universe. In 1832 the Prophet Joseph Smith came with this message, in one of the revelations contained in the Book of Covenants:

By this term "kingdom" our Prophet does not have in contemplation a number of people ruled by a king; the context reveals the fact that the prophet had in mind those great planetary systems which make up the universe. These are the "kingdoms" he had in mind; and he announces here a very wonderful doctrine, when he declares that there is no space but what has in it some one or other of these kingdoms--worlds and world-systems; and that there is no kingdom in the which there is not also extension, or space. A great scientist and scholar expresses the same truth in the following language:

Such is the Summing up of what he calls the "law of substance," by one of the profoundest minds of Germany, Ernest Haeckel. Analyze it, and you will find it precisely the same conception as that announced by our Prophet in 1832, when he said: "There is no space in the which there is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space." I think, perhaps, it will be necessary to dwell upon that idea for a few minutes in order that we may grasp the thought in something of its immensity. I had a teacher, once, who was very skilful in imparting knowledge to his pupils in the matter of solving mathematical problems. The lines on which he proceeded were these: He would take a very simple example that involved the same principles that were to be applied in the more difficult problem; then he would work out the simple problem and tell us to work out the more difficult one in the same manner. So I am of opinion that if we spend a short time in considering our own little solar system, perhaps it will help us form some idea of the immensity of the universe of which we speak.

It is well known to you all that our solar system is made up of what the astronomers call eight major planets and a great number of minor planets, lying between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter; that our planets in the order of their relationship of nearness to the sun, consist of Mercury, Venus, the earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, these are the eight major planets. In diameter, we are told that Mercury measures 3,200 miles; that the diameter of Venus is 7,760 miles; that the earth is 7,918 miles in diameter; that Mars is 4,200 miles in diameter; that Jupiter is 85,000 miles in diameter (while our earth is less than 8,000 miles in diameter, be it remembered!); that the diameter of Saturn is 73,000 miles. Yet, take all these planets and all their satelites, wonderful and great as they are, and consider them melted down into one great sphere, and still our sun alone, the center of this planetary system, is upwards of 750 times as large as all these planets combined would be!

Let us now consider these several planets with reference to the distance at which they revolve about their primary--the sun. Mercury makes the circuit in 116 days; Venus makes the circuit around the sun in 224 days; the earth of course, as you remember, makes the circuit in 365 days; but Mars requires 687 days in which to make the journey; while Jupiter requires 4,330 days (more than 11 years); Saturn 10,767 days (more than 29 years); Uranus, 20,660 days, or 56 years; and Neptune, 60,127 days, or about 165 years.

The distances of these planets from the sun, in millions of miles, are as follows: Mercury is 36 millions of miles; Venus 67 millions; the earth 92 millions; Mars 141 millions; Jupiter 483 millions; Saturn 875 millions; Uranus 1,770 millions; Neptune 2,746 millions of miles.

These figures and the facts they represent are given that some little idea may be conceived as to the extent of our own solar system, that after contemplating its immensity and discovering that, inconceivably great as it is, it is still no very considerable part of the universe, we may arise to a brief contemplation of still greater spaces--depths of the universe, and their contents. You see, I am using our solar system, as the teacher referred to a moment ago used the simple problem in arithmetic, to help solve the more intricate problem of comprehending a little more clearly the immensity of the universe. Let us resume our work. Professor Newcomb in his "Popular Astronomy" makes use of the following illustration to help the popular mind grasp the immensity of the siderial system:

Just now the great winter constellations are leaving our skies; still, in the evening, you may yet see Orion, in the western sky; and following, and shining most brightly of all the stars in the firmament, the Dog star. It is estimated by our astronomers that light travels through space at the enormous speed of 198,000 miles per second; that in about eight minutes a ray of light reaches our earth from the sun.

Yet, this Dog star, to which I call your attention, is so distant from us that it requires something like 16 years for a ray of light to reach us from that distant and splendid sun; and from the familiar Pole star, it requires 40 years for a ray of light to reach our earth. Mr. Samuel Kinns, well known in England, as one of the foremost thinkers in that land, tells us that this Dog star, judging from the amount of light emitted from him, is 3,000 times larger than our own sun; and he argues, that if this great primary, is so many times larger than our sun, may it not be possible that the retinue of planets of which he is doubtless the center, is correspondingly greater than our planetary system.

Nobody knows, of course, how many fixed stars there are. Our astronomers tell us they number all the way from 30 to 50, 60, or even hundreds of millions; and that it is not unreasonable to suppose, they argue, that since we find this little planet of ours inhabited by sentient beings, by intelligences, by men and women capable of establishing national governments, and high grades of civilization, it is not unreasonable to suppose that in some of these more magnificent world-systems there may be beings more intelligent, more powerful than we are, and further advanced in arts and Sciences and all that goes to make up superior methods of life and civilization. And if our astronomers are anywhere nearly right in relation to the scores of millions of suns, they report, and it is true, that they are the centers of planetary systems, then of course of worlds such as ours, and more magnificent than ours; there are hundreds of millions. Upon this head Professor John W. Draper says:

These reflections I trust will help to impress upon our minds the immensity of the universe, until we can in some measure understand the greatness of that truth announced by the Prophet Joseph, when he said: "There are many kingdoms; and there is no space in which there is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser space ;" and the deductions of Ernest Haeckel, when he said: "The extent of the universe is infinite and unbounded. It is empty in no part, but every where filled with substance. The duration of the world is equally infinite and unbounded. It has no end; it is eternity."

Mormonism recognizes certain eternal truths, necessary truths, because the opposite of them cannot be conceived of --as, for example, that space or extension is boundless, as one of our hymns puts it:

You cannot limit space in any conception of it you may form--try how you will; for as soon as you fix the limitation, your mind conceives extension beyond the point you fix upon, and you may fix it as distant as you please. So, also, in relation to duration. Mormonism recognizes no limit to duration. Time is endless; there is no absolute beginning or end of time. All beginnings and endings spoken of are but relative, and concern not duration absolutely, but "time" within eternity, when a certain order of things begins or when it reaches an end. We measure duration so, and call it time. So in relation to matter. Mormonism recognizes the eternity of matter and also eternity of spirit; that matter is uncreated; spirit is also uncreated. 'These, spirit and matter, are eternal existences, constituting what our Book of Mormon speaks of as "things to act and things to be acted upon." (II Nephi ii:14.)

Referring back now to the immensity of the universe--to this limitless, heaving, restless ocean of worlds and world-systems--is it inhabited by sentient beings? Or stands it tenantless save only for our own little earth--less than the single grain of sand on limitless sea shores? On this head Sir Robert Ball, one of the leading men of science in England has a most thoughtful passage; and though it would seem to open again the subject of the immensity of the universe on which we have already dwelt over long, still I cannot consent to omit any part of what follows:

This is as far as scientific men may go. Our astronomers stand upon our earth with their telescopes directed to the planet Mars, which most nearly resembles the physical conditions of our own earth, so far as may be judged, and they speculate as to whether or not Mars is inhabited. And while they thus stand halting, our Prophet, through the revelations of God and the inspiration of the Almighty that was in him, proclaimed these worlds and world-systems to be inhabited by the sons and daughters of God. Let me read a passage of Mormon scripture to you:

The late Elder Orson Pratt, in a footnote, commenting upon the above passages says:

"The inhabitants of each planet blessed with the presence and visits of their Creator."

That which scientific men may only properly say is a probability, the Prophet Joseph boldly proclaims as revealed truth--the universe is not tenantless, but is inhabited by sentient beings--the offspring of Divine Beings.

III. Philosophy of Mormonism.

I think now we have sufficient data before us on which we may proceed to the consideration of the philosophy of Mormonism.

With your permission, then, and asking you to bear with me and follow me as closely as you can in what I now have to offer, I will read--because one ought to be careful in stating conceptions of important things--I will read to you a few paragraphs touching these great and, I think, essential principles of so-called Mormonism that ought to be considered when we are discussing Mormonism as a body of doctrine. I trust we shall arrive at the conclusion, finally, that it is worth more than the "respect of a passing glance." It would be difficult to characterize Mormon philosophy under any of the schools extant. "Eternalism" I should select as the word best suited for its philosophic conceptions. It is dualistic, but not in the sense that it breaks up the universe into two entirely distinct substances--the material world and an "immaterial God,"--as the Christian philosophy, in the main does. It is also monistic, but not in the sense that in the last analysis of things it recognizes no distinctions in matter, or that matter--gross material--and spirit, or mind, a finer and thinking kind of material, are fused into one inseparable sole substance which is at once "God and nature," as the monists claim. Its dualism is that which, while recognizing an infinitely extended substance, the universe, unbounded and empty in no part, but everywhere filled with substance--it holds, nevertheless, that such substance exists in two principle modes, having some qualities in common, and in others being distinct; first, gross material, usually recognized as matter, pure and simple; and, second, a finer, thinking substance, usually regarded by other systems of thought as "spirit," i.e., "immaterial substance"--if one may use terms so contradictory. These two kinds of matter have existed from all eternity and will exist to eternity, in intimate relations. Neither produces the other, they are eternal existences--"things to act and things to be acted upon." The monism of Mormonism, alluded to a moment since, while recognizing the universe as infinitely extended substance and all substance as material--and hence, in this respect, monistic; yet it also recognizes the world substance as being of two kinds: one gross material; the other a finer, or thinking material; having some qualities in common with gross matter, and in others being distinct. "All spirit is matter," said our Prophet, "but it is more fine or pure [i.e., than gross matter tangible to our ordinary senses] and can only be discerned by purer eyes. We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter."

After these distinctions are made and all the while held in consciousness, so that there shall not be a loss of distinction in things, nor a confounding of things, we may hereafter use the terms "intelligence" and "matter"--equivalent of mind and matter--as naming the two modes in which, for Mormonism, the eternal and infinitely extended substance, the universe, exists. To say that intelligence dominates matter and produces all the ceaseless changes going on in the universe, both of creation and demolition, for both forces are operating--as our Pearl of Great Price says: "There are many worlds that have passed away, by the world of my [God's] power; and there are many that now stand; and as one. earth shall pass away and the heavens thereof, even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works;" and hence the creation and demolition to which reference is here made. To say that mind dominates matter, I repeat, is merely to say that the superior dominates the inferior; that which acts is greater than that which is acted upon; that mind is the eternal cause of the "ever becoming" in the universe, the cause and sustainer of the cosmic world. It is also to say that mind is power; that mind possesses as qualities the power of thought, and will, and life, and love.

As the grosser material exists ultimately in elements that are themselves eternal--uncreated and uncreatable, so the finer or thinking substance, intelligence is eternal--uncreated and uncreatable. That is the doctrine of the revelation, which says: "Man was in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created, or made--neither, indeed, can be;" and as the gross material, atoms, exist, some in organized worlds and world-systems, the cosmos; and also others in chaotic mass, so the intelligences, intelligent entities, exist in somewhat analogous states, some in the form of perfected exalted men clothed upon with immortal bodies, as the Christ was--nay, rather is now, today, and participating in a nature that is divine--having won their exaltation through stress and trial in the various estates or changes through which they have passed; other intelligencies exist in spirit bodies, less tangible than the first class, possessed of less experience, less of power and dignity, but still they are in the way of progress through other estates yet to be experienced by them; also intelligences not yet begotten spirits, not yet united with elements of the grosser substance, union with which is essential to the highest development of intelligences. You find this last doctrine mainly-recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, as follows:

Such is the Mormon view of the universe and the modes of existence in it, briefly outlined. These existences, both of the thinking substance and the grosser materials, are subject to infinite changes and development in which there are no ultimates. Each succeeding wave of progress may attain higher and ever higher degrees of excellence, but never attain perfection: The ideal recedes ever as it is approached; and, hence, progress is eternal, even for the high est of existences.

One other thought in connection with all these matters. I read to you a few moments ago a passage to the effect that to all these kingdoms of the infinite universe is given a law, and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions." Later in the same revelation this is added: "Verily I say unto you he, [God] hath given a law unto all things by which they move in their times and in their seasons. And their courses are fixed; even the courses of the heavens and the earth, which comprehend the earth and all the planets; and they give light to each other in their times and in their season, in their minutes, in their hours, in their days, in their weeks, in their months, in their years; all these are one year with God, but not with man."

In passing it may be interesting to note respecting the idea expressed above, viz., that "to every law there are certain bounds also and conditions,"--that a remarkable statement was made by a learned man of our own country touching this same principle. The passage quoted from Joseph Smith bears the date of December, 1832. Sixty-three years afterwards, Henry Drummond, speaking upon this principle of law being limited by law--or law itself being under the dominion of law--said:

That is to say, even unto laws there are certain bounds and conditions that limit them. Let me illustrate it, if I can. The old-time mariner, say of a hundred years ago, knew nothing of nature's forces applied to navigation except the tides, the ocean currents, and the winds. He believed these were all the propelling forces that entered into ocean navigation. If he were alive today, and could see one of our great ocean' greyhounds, the modern passenger ocean steamship, dashing through the waves dead against both ocean currents and the wind, and yet making greater speed than he could ever attain in his sailing vessel with both wind and the tide in his favor, he would declare that he beheld a miracle. But that would not be true. We of today, with our knowledge of other forces than those of wind and ocean currents operating in ocean navigation, look upon the steamship's speed as perfectly natural. The natural forces with which the mariner of a hundred years ago was acquainted are simply overcome by other forces in nature; not in violation of any natural law, but through the application of forces unknown to the sailor of a hundred years ago. So, doubtless we shall find it true in relation to nearly all laws or forces that exist. We shall find still other laws, still other forces, that limit or supercede, when applied, the forces now known to us.

But what I wanted to do is merely to call your attention to the fact that Mormonism teaches this very great doc-trine, viz., that the whole universe--unlimited and unbounded as it is, and having within it and now operating processes both of evolution and devolution--as it is written in the Book of Moses (Pearl of Great Price): "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. * * * And as one earth shall pass away and the heavens thereof, even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works"--notwithstanding all this is going on in the universe, the operation of both creative and destructive forces, yet we are assured by the word of God as well as by the deductions of scientists and philosophers that all the mighty change going on in the universe, as well as the universe itself, are under the dominion of law; and in the consciousness of the reign of law, our faith teaches us to repose sublime and perfect confidence in the fact that

Such I conceive to be the effect of this conception that we live under the reign of law; and that constructive forces predominate in the economy of things, else things that are would not be nor persist.

IV. Source of Moral Evil.

Now we come to an element in our faith, extremely interesting and that is the transgression of law, which the Apostle John declares to be sin: "for sin," said he, "is the transgression of the law." This transgression of law is a fact that has to be taken into account in the sum of things. The existence of moral evil in the world is one of the problems that has vexed Christian theologians from the earliest of times until now. They have had extreme difficulty in reconciling their conception of God as an absolute being, infinitely wise, all-powerful, all-good, and that he created everything out of nothing, and yet not assign to him the creation of evil. If all things have been produced by an infinitely righteous, perfect, all-powerful, and good Creator, how can moral evil exist in his economy? That is a question to which no satisfactory explanation has yet been found. Mormonism teaches that God does not create moral evil; but that moral evil arises out of the agency of intelligences, and that so long as there are intelligences, possessed of free agency, it means that they can violate law, if they insist upon doing it. To conceive this as impossible would be to deny the free agency of intelligences.

I know there is one passage that, perhaps, might be quoted against my contention, that God does not create evil. It occurs in the writings of Isaiah, it is said--and it is the only place in Scripture where it is said, so far as I have been able to learn--"I [God] make peace," and "I create evil." "I create"--what? "Evil," such as the opposite of peace, such as war, famine, and the like. But to what end does God cause war, or famine? For corrective purposes only, to chastize men, to bring them to a realization of wrong-doing, or national transgression. For these ends God has, sometimes, brought to pass these conditions that we recognize as evil. But that class of evils is quite a distinct thing from moral evil. Though God may bring on a famine, storm, tempest, or war for corrective purposes, yet God is not the creator of falsehood; he is not the creator of slander; nor of drunkenness; nor of avarice, nor malice, nor of robbery, nor unkindhess, nor of adulteries. These moral evils are not of his creating. Jesus Christ did not say, "Lead us not into temptation," for, as the Apostle James instructs us, God cannot be tempted of evil. "Let no man," says he, "when he is tempted, say, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed. Then lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." The prayer of the Christ, as taught to his apostles, and as restored through the word of the Lord to our Prophet, is not, "And lead us not into temptation," but "Suffer us not to be led into temptation, deliver us from evil."

So far as moral evil is concerned, then, I say it is not of God's creation. It is one of those possibilities that are eternal. It did not begin with the transgression of Adam upon this earth. It existed before that; even in the heavens, when Lucifer rebelled against the King and majesty of heaven--God. Lucifer had power even there to sin; and so far back as the agency of intelligencies extends, there has existed always the possibility of sin; and so far forward as the agency of intelligencies shall extend, there will always be the possibility, of the transgression of law, of sin; for sin potentially, is an eternal reality. It is concurrent with the free agency of intelligences.

But God, according to Mormon doctrine, does not create evil, tempt men with it, and then when not sufficiently strong to withstand the temptation, damn them everlastingly for falling. The only way in which God affects men is favorably, that is, he helps them in their apprehension of and their adoption of the good. He does not, according to Mormon doctrine, create intelligence, for that is an independent, self-existing thing; therefore not even God creates man's intelligence, that is uncreated and uncreatable--an eternal thing. As I have said elsewhere, God is not responsible for the use they make of their freedom; nor is he the author of their sufferings when they fall into sin; suffering arises out of the violations of law to which the "intelligence" subscribed, and must be endured until the lessons of obedience to law are learned.

Man has his choice of moving upward or downward in every estate he occupies; often defeating even the benevolent purposes of God respecting him, through his own perverseness; he passes through dire experiences, suffers terribly, yet learns by what he suffers, so that his very suffering becomes a means to his improvement; he learns swiftly or slowly, according to the inherent nature of him, obedience to law; he learns that "that which is governed by law is also preserved 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, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice nor judgment. Therefore they must remain filthy still." This conception of things relieves God of the responsibility for the nature and status of intelligences 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, perhaps, yet change it they may. God has put them in the way of changing it, by enlarging their intelligence through change of environment, and through experiences.

V. The Place and Mission of Christ in Mormon Doctrine.

There is a singular fact connected with this subject of moral evil--of sin. And that is that the transgression of the moral law entails suffering, even as violation of physical law may result in pain, or sickness or death. The way of the transgressor is hard. "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap." "The wages of sin is death." Not only are these truisms, but it is also true that often the righteous are made to suffer because of the transgressions of the wicked. The innocent are involved in the misery of the guilty. No man lives unto himself alone, and he may, and often does involve others in his transgressions. It is possible for the fathers to suffer because of the sins of the children. It is possible for the children to suffer because of the sins of the fathers. Many a father can still exclaim as David did over his wayward son Absolom, "O! my son! Would to God that I had died for thee!" This is one of the difficulties that confront religious thought--the innocent being involved in the sufferings of the guilty. Yet, from the midst of our perplexity over such a seeming injustice as this, there comes to us the mighty testimony that it is not only possible but it is a fact, that the innocent can and do suffer with and because of the transgression of the guilty; may they not also suffer for them, since vicarious suffering is a possibility? On that possibility hinges the whole gospel of the Christ, and the saving power of the atonement. It is deeply written in the experiences of men that the innocent can suffer with and because of the guilty; and it is the doctrine of the Christian revelation that the innocent can suffer for the guilty, as witness the following testimonies: "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for us." "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." "He [the Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. * * * So Christ once suffered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." "Christ also suffered for us. * * Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes we were healed." It is very clear, then, that it is the doctrine of the Christian revelation, which doctrine of course, Mormonism accepts, that Christ suffered for man's transgressions. There is Scripture evidence also, could we but take the time to point it out, to prove that the whole scheme of man's earth-life and his redemption was considered even before the foundations of the earth itself were laid. And the Redeemer chosen and agreed upon and hence was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Paul announces himself as living, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." The facts in brief are that the time came when for the progress of spirit intelligences an earth-life, under conditions such as exist in this world, became necessary to them. To bring to pass that earth-life the union of spirit with earth element and attended by the experiences which such a life would bring, involved transgression of law, involving the race in sin and death from which it was only possible to extricate it by adequate atonement being made to satisfy the claims of inexorable law. In this crisis there arose in the councils in heaven one great, sympathetic Soul who recognized not only the fact that the innocent can suffer with the guilty, or because of the guilty, but for the guilty, and offered himself a sacrifice for the sin that should be committed in breaking the harmony of things in order to give intelligences the advantages of earth-life and its lessons. The Christ would make atonement for Adam's transgression, so that as in Adam all should die, as saith the Scriptures, so in Christ should all be made alive; that "since by man came death, by man should come also the resurrection of the dead." And not only was this vicarious atonement made to cover the transgression of Adam, but it was made to reach also to the individual sins of men, that they might not suffer if they would accept the gospel. The doctrine is better stated in a revelation given to our Prophet than anywhere else in sacred literature, hence I quote that revelation. Let it be borne in mind that transgression of the moral law--sin--is attended upon by suffering, and now this revelation. It was given through the Prophet to Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, reproving him for some of his delinquencies:

I presume that the experience of Martin Harris, here described, has at least been sufficiently the experience of every matured man and woman--that they know this testimony to be true, that is, that sin produces suffering--sorrow, anguish of heart; and when the Spirit of the Lord is withdrawn and darkness, like the blackness of night surges through the soul of man, and the sun of righteousness seems set for him, he is then made to feel what it means to sin against the law of God as it has been revealed unto his soul. When you think of the bitterness of that personal suffering, you will not marvel that when the heavy burden of a world's sin rested down upon the Son of God in Gethsemane--you certainly will not marvel that he sweat great drops of blood in his agony; nor wonder at his suffering on the cross.

Now, the transgression of the moral law we say results in suffering. It is possible for the innocent to suffer for the guilty, and through the voluntary act of the Christ, he took upon him your sins and mine, if we will but be bought by the price which he paid for us. He has suffered that we might not suffer, if we would but obey his law henceforth.

The atonement of the Christ both for Adam's transgression and for the individual sins of men, brings into the moral economy of God the element of mercy, and of love from which mercy springs. To make room for mercy, however, justice had to be satisfied, hence the atonement. "And God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." This sacrifice of the Christ is the manifestation of that love of God that binds in sympathetic relations all the intelligences of the universe together; by which they suffer not only with each other and because of each other, but at need for each other. This is the doctrine of the atonement of the Christ; this the good news of salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ. You may be rescued, I may be rescued, from the suffering that comes of sin, through the vicarious atonement of the Christ. And that the forces of that atonement may be applied to us, we manifest our acceptance of this means of salvation by our repentance of sin, and by going into the waters of baptism, into the great cleansing element of the world, and there are buried with the Christ in likeness of his own burial; and then we are brought forth from the watery tomb in the likeness of his glorious resurrection; and as he awoke to a newness of physical life, by the resurrection, so, too, may we come forth from baptism to a newness of spiritual life. We also complete the baptism by the application of the purifying element, the baptism of the Holy Ghost--likened unto a baptism of fire. The Spirit of God is thus imparted to our spirit, which means that our lives are united with the life of God; by which his wisdom may be at our service; by which his strength may be our strength; his glory, may be our glory. Thus may men be united to God by these most beautiful and holy symbols of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then, to keep the object lessons constantly before us, and to be reminded of the price that was paid for the possibility of our redemption from sin, we often partake of the emblems of the body and of the blood of the Christ, by which we renew covenant, by which we renew spiritual life, and thus keep our fellowship with God, that the blood of Christ may cleanse us from all sin.

This, in part, is the body of our doctrine. This is the grand scheme of man's salvation, and the philosophy that underlies it. This is our doctrine concerning the universe, concerning the existence of intelligences within it, the purpose of earth-life of man, and the means provided for man's redemption from the consequences of the transgression of law involved in that earth-life. Judge ye, this day, whether such a body of doctrine as this is not worthy of something more than "the cold respect of a passing glance."