Title: Mormon Doctrine Plain and Simple - Or Leaves from the Tree of Life
Author: Penrose, Charles W. (Charles William)
Language: English
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"MORMON" DOCTRINE,

PLAIN AND SIMPLE,


--OR--


Leaves from the Tree of Life.


By CHAS. W. PENROSE.


PUBLISHED BY
THE JUVENILE INSTRUCTOR OFFICE,
Salt Lake City, Utah.
1888.



INTRODUCTION.

There is no subject of popular comment on which there is so little
general information as that called "Mormonism." This little work is
designed to explain, in a simple way, leading features of "Mormon"
doctrine. The terms "Mormon" and "Mormonism" are not strictly correct
as usually applied. They are inappropriately derived from the Book
of Mormon, which is a work containing the history of the former
inhabitants of the American continent, written at different times by
various persons and finally compiled by a prophet named Mormon and
inscribed upon metallic plates, which were hidden in the earth to come
forth in the latter days, for the enlightenment of mankind in relation
to the origin of the Indian tribes of this land, and as a testimony
that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified by the Jews, is indeed the
Messiah, the Son of the living God.

This record, giving an account of the dealings of the Almighty with the
people it describes, and whose origin and travels, wars and industries,
customs and religion, progress and decay it graphically relates,
was taken from its hiding place by Joseph Smith in obedience to the
revelation and commandment of God and was translated into the English
language through a heavenly gift bestowed upon that favored man. Those
who believe in the divinity of the book are commonly called "Mormons,"
and the doctrines which they hold are known as "Mormonism." But it is
as inconsistent to call people "Mormons," who believe in the writings
of Mormon, as it would be to call them Isaiahs, or Jeremiahs, or Peters
or Pauls, because they believe in the scriptures written by those
inspired men.

The Church which has been organized under direction from the same
heavenly Power that revealed the Book of Mormon, is entitled the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Its members, then, should not
be called "Mormons," but Latter-day Saints. The members of the church
established by Jesus and His apostles, as will be seen by reference
to the New Testament, were called Saints. The term "Christians" was
applied to them in derision, and was first used at Antioch. The members
of the restored Church of Christ are called Latter-day Saints to
distinguish them from their brethren and sisters of former times. But
as "Christians" came to be the common appellation of the former-day
saints, so "Mormons" has come to be the title generally bestowed upon
the Latter-day Saints, and is used herein only in that sense.

In the twelve leaves which are plucked from the tree of life and
herewith sent forth for the healing of the nations from the effects of
error and false doctrine, will be found a sweet and sovereign balm for
spiritual disorders. And by receiving them, a desire will be created
for further gatherings of the same foliage. They will serve to open the
eyes of those who have been in spiritual darkness and are yet anxious
for the light, and as a preparation for the attainment of that vital
power which makes all things new, and quickens and animates earthly
beings with celestial life and light.

We ask for the principles here presented, the careful consideration
of thoughtful minds, and confidently invite comparison with those
utterances of the Jewish prophets and apostles which are contained in
the Bible. References to those scriptures will be found at the end of
this work, arranged to correspond with each chapter or "leaf."

The young people among the Latter-day Saints will obtain, by a perusal
of this little book, an understanding of the fundamental principles of
the system which has cost the blood of martyred Prophets and Apostles
to establish. And it will be found useful in the missionary field, as a
sower of those seeds of truth which, if widely scattered, will surely
fall upon some good ground and bring forth fruit for the service of the
Master.

We invoke upon this little work the Spirit of the most high God, to
whose cause it is dedicated, that wherever it may go light may spring
forth to the joy of those who desire the truth, and that by its means
many people may be directed into the way which leads to the tree of
life, enjoy its luscious fruit and gain the gift of endless lives
wherein redeemed man is exalted and the eternal God is glorified.

                                                          C. W. P.



CONTENTS.

FIRST LEAF.

Value of Truth--Only One True Religion--Faith the First
Principle--Faith a Principle of Power--How Faith Comes--No Man can
Find out God--Diety must Manifest Himself--God the Father of the
Race--Personality of God--The Great Lawgiver Governs Himself by Law

SECOND LEAF.

True Repentance the Consequence of Faith--Original Sin and Actual
Sin--The Work of Redemption--Universal Redemption from Original
Sin--Conditions of Salvation from Actual Sin--Baptism, its Object, Mode
and Effect--A New Creature in Christ Jesus

THIRD LEAF.

The Holy Ghost, its Nature, Office and Power--Conferred through
the Laying On of Hands--Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit--How
Obtained--Their Object and Design--Effects of its Withdrawal--Infinite
Riches of its Full Inspiration

FOURTH LEAF.

Divine Authority--Without it all Gospel Administrations Vain--It Cannot
be Acquired--The Priesthood, its Antiquity, Power and Blessings--The
Priesthood of Melchisedek--The Aaronic Priesthood--Priestcraft--The
Authority of God must Come from God--Ordination--Value of the
Priesthood.

FIFTH LEAF.

The Church of Christ--Its Unity--Christ's Church under His Personal
Supervision--Rules of Admission--No Others Available--Apostleship
the Chief Authority--Other Authorities and Ministers--Necessity of
These--The Church Progressive--It Casts Off Evil-Doers--Brotherhood of
its Members--Mission of the Church.

SIXTH LEAF.

Apostasy from the Primitive Church--When it Commenced--The Apostles
Predicted it--The Apostasy Universal--The Woman Clothed With the
Sun, and the Scarlet-Clothed Harlot-What they Represent--The
Reformation--Spread of Truth but Lack of Authority--Multiplication of
Sects--No Voice from Heaven.

SEVENTH LEAF.

Restoration of the Gospel--Ministration of an Angel--Divine Knowledge
and Divine Authority--Keys of Former Dispensations Revealed--Rebuilding
of the Church of Christ--The Signs Following--Coming of
Elijah--Dispensation of the Fullness of Times--Triumph of the Truth.

EIGHTH LEAF.

Apparent Doom of the Majority of Mankind--No Salvation but by Jesus
Christ--Is the State of Man Fixed at Death?--The Common Belief
Incorrect--Preaching to the Dead--The Spirit Without the Body
Sentient--Nature of Paradise--All People to Hear the Gospel Either in
this Life or the Next.

NINTH LEAF.

Decrees of God Fixed in the Spiritual as in the Natural
Universe--Ordinances Essential--The Living may be Baptized for the
Dead--The Principle of Proxy--The Place for the Administration of
Vicarious Ordinances--Revelation of Elijah, the Prophet--Connection
With the Spirit World--True Order of Communication--Blessed Results of
Work Done for the Dead.

TENTH LEAF.

Universality of Death--Results of the Transgression
of Law--Dissolution of the Body not the End of Existence--What
is Resurrection?--The Spiritual Body of Jesus--All to be
Raised from the Dead--The Order of the Resurrection--Necessity
of an Immortal Body--Ignorance of the Laws of Nature--Matter
Indestructible--Possibilities of Creative Energy--Life and Immortality
Brought to Light.

ELEVENTH LEAF.

Man or Woman Alone Imperfect--Marriage Ordained
of God--Sanctity of Proper Sexual Relations--Matrimony a Part of
Religion--The First Pair Immortal--Marriage for Eternity--Keys of
Celestial Marriage--Condition of Those who Marry Only for Time--Man the
Head of the Woman--Plurality of Wives--Continuation of the Righteous
Forever--Eternal Family Organizations--Everlasting Increase and
Dominion.

TWELFTH LEAF.

Christ's Work Continued After His Death--The Perfect Science of
Human Redemption--What was Lost in the Fall--What is to be Regained
in the Restoration--Justice Tempered with Mercy--Loss Sustained
by the Disobedient--Doom of the Sons of Perdition--The Celestial,
Terrestrial and Telestial Glories--Redemption and Glorification
of the Earth--Salvation of the Whole Race--The Finished Work of
Christ--Universal Dominion of the Father.

"THE LATTER-DAY KINGDOM," a Poem.

APPENDIX.

Scriptural References to all the subjects treated upon in the
body of the work.



"MORMON" DOCTRINE,

OR

LEAVES FROM THE TREE OF LIFE.



FIRST LEAF.

Value of Truth--Only One True Religion--Faith the First
Principle--Faith a Principle of Power--How Faith Comes--No Man Can
Find out God--Deity Must Manifest Himself--God the Father of the
Race--Personality of God--The Great Lawgiver Governs Himself by Law.

There is nothing more valuable than truth. Religious truth, or that
which relates to God, our duty to Him, His laws and purposes, and the
means by which we may now come to Him and eventually be exalted in
His presence, is really priceless. To obtain a knowledge of religious
truth, both young and old should be willing to make every exertion and
to offer any sacrifice.

There are many systems of religion in the world, but only one can
be correct, for the simple reason that there is but one God for the
inhabitants of the earth to worship and obey. If there were many
true Gods to whom mankind owed reverence there might be several true
religions. God is the author or revealer of true religion. Men may
invent and arrange methods of worship, imagine and think out doctrines,
and formulate and enforce creeds; but they are of no value as a means
of salvation. God must be approached and served in the way which He
ordains, or the worship and service will not be accepted.

The first principle of true religion is faith. This is the beginning
of righteousness. It is the very root of the tree of life, and its
sap runs through all the branches. "Without faith it is impossible
to please God." And "Whosoever cometh to God must believe that He
is." Faith, in its simplest sense, is the assent of the mind, and its
assurance of the existence of things unseen by the natural eye. This
is belief. In another sense, faith is a motive power, a principle of
action. Examination into the secret springs that prompt us in the
common affairs of life will show that faith moves us to exertion
and incites us to perseverance. It is the assurance we feel of the
existence or attainment of things unperceived by the senses, which
urges us onward and inspires us with energy. In a higher sense, faith
is a spiritual force. It reaches up to the heavenly spheres. It lays
hold upon eternal things. It acts upon the grosser elements, and moves
spiritual essences and immortal intelligences.

It is in its fullness all powerful. By its exercise God made the
worlds, bringing order out of chaos, light out of darkness and visible
things out of the invisible, all moved by that spiritual energy called
faith. By its power Christ stilled the winds and walked upon the waves,
healed the sick and raised the dead. Elijah, by faith closed the
heavens, that they rained not, and overcame the might of death, passing
with his body into the mansions on high. By faith, Job beheld the
coming of the Redeemer, and Paul ascended to the third heaven. And by
faith men and women can overcome the influences of earth and time, and
rise to communion with angelic beings, and even with God, the highest
and holiest of all.

Man must have faith in God in order to become exalted into His
presence. No man knows of himself how to reach that position, nor how
to obtain salvation from sin and its effects, among which are sorrow
and pain, and death as the ultimate. To learn anything in relation
to these important matters he must be taught of God, and faith is
therefore absolutely necessary in the outset of any attempt to learn of
Him.

This faith "comes by hearing," or in other words is developed by
testimony. Through the testimony of men divinely appointed to speak
in the name of the Lord, faith is awakened in the human heart. It is
a principle existing in every soul, but in the condition of fallen
humanity is measurably dormant, until quickened by a divine influence.
The word spoken by inspired men, accompanied by the influence of the
spirit of truth, arouses faith in the soul of man, and by its force
he is led to call upon the Lord, and by its light to see his way to
repentance and obedience.

No man by his own researches can find out God. He may, by reason and
reflection, by observing and pondering upon the wonders of creation,
by studying his own internal and external nature, come to the sure
conclusion that there is a God, and to a very small extent make an
estimate of His character. But without the Almighty manifests Himself
in some manner, finite man can never obtain a knowledge of infinite
Deity. The speculations of human beings concerning God are many and
various, and a vast number of their conclusions inconsistent and vain.
Human learning, no matter how extensive, and human research, no matter
how profound, are of necessity inadequate alone to the acquisition of
a knowledge of divine things. Hence an unlettered person enlightened
direct from God, will know more of Deity than the most erudite
collegian who has not received this divine illumination.

Some conception of God is necessary to proper faith in Him. On
this account He has, at different periods of the world's history,
manifested Himself to chosen persons, whom He has deputed to bear
witness of His existence and attributes to others, and declare His
will and commandments. The history of some of these manifestations
and revelations given in olden times is recorded in the Bible. Those
that have been vouchsafed to man in the latter times are embodied in
what is popularly known as "Mormonism," but which should be called the
Everlasting Gospel, renewed on earth.

By these we learn that God is the Father of the human race. As every
seed in nature bears its own kind, it is reasonable to conclude that
man bears some semblance to the Being from whom he sprang. And this
idea is confirmed by the divine declaration that "God made man in His
own image." Our Father in Heaven, is then, a personal Being. He is a
Spirit. But He is also enclothed in a tabernacle. In other words, He is
an immortal Spirit dwelling in an immortal tabernacle. Every faculty
and power to be found in mortal man exists in the fullness of its
perfection in the person of Deity. Those glorious qualities which make
so wide a distinction between man and the lower animals are undeveloped
photographs, or rather, embryotic duplicates of the perfected
attributes of the Eternal Father.

Being an individual, God, in His personality, cannot be omnipresent.
But by the Holy Spirit, which proceeds from His presence and permeates
all things throughout the immensity of space, He can see, and know,
and influence all things. Yet the Being who has power over all His
creations proceeds by law, and while giving laws to all His creations
is Himself governed by law and never violates the eternal principles of
truth, justice and mercy. The "laws of nature" are the laws of God, and
He is consistent with them and those higher laws which pertain to the
spiritual spheres.

The Fatherhood of God is a glorious truth that must at some time be
impressed upon every one of our race. It involves the brotherhood of
man. It is full of ennobling and elevating suggestions, and prompts
those who are impressed with its majesty to deeds worthy of so exalted
an origin; leads to humility and obedience, and influences all the
sons and daughters of the Eternal Father to mutual help, forbearance,
charity and affection, as brothers and sisters of a family, whose
destiny is connected with the glory, and dominion, and matchless power
of the Almighty framer and governor of the universe.



SECOND LEAF.

True Repentance the Consequence of Faith--Original Sin and Actual
Sin--The Work of Redemption--Universal Redemption from Original
Sin--Conditions of Salvation from Actual sin--Baptism, its Object, Mode
and Effect--A New Creature in Christ Jesus.

Faith in God once quickened in the human heart, conscience is awakened
and the mind is self-convicted of sin. Repentance follows as the
consequence. This includes sorrow for the past and determination for
the future. This first of these without the second is not genuine
repentance. It is barren and fruitless, and is therefore unacceptable
to God. Resolutions of future rectitude are naturally accompanied
by grief for past wrong-doing, but regret may exist without reform,
and such is not saving repentance, the virtue of which is in turning
from evil and cleaving to good. Tears, self-reproaches, lamentations,
self-abasement in language or in gesture do not constitute repentance,
no matter how loudly they may be indulged in or how conspicuous they
may appear, but it is evidenced by forsaking things one knows to be
wrong and practising that which one is satisfied is right. Humility is
one of its chief characteristics and this prompts obedience.

As repentance follows faith, so baptism succeeds repentance. For the
wish to work righteousness in future implies a desire for forgiveness
of past guilt, and baptism is ordained for the remission of sins. This
opens the broad questions of sin and redemption and the doctrine of the
atonement.

There are two general divisions of sin, viz., original and actual.
Original sin is that which was committed by the parents of the race,
the consequences of which pass upon all of their posterity. Actual sin
is that committed by each individual and for which he is personally
responsible. Adam and Eve broke the divine law given to them in the
garden, the penalty for which was death, natural and spiritual; the
first being the separation of the spirit and the body, and the second,
banishment from the presence of God. The taint descended to their
offspring. Death is the common lot, and a vail is drawn between man and
his Maker. Thus mankind are prone to do evil, and the consequence is
that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." "The wages
of sin is death."

Redemption is rescue from the results of the fall. This can only be
achieved by the raising of the race from the dead and restoring them
to the presence of God. To effect this, Christ came. Doing no sin, He
gave Himself as a ransom for those who sinned. He upon whom death had
no claim gave Himself to death that he might satisfy eternal justice
and give mercy room to act. Death came by Adam, life comes by Christ.
Through one act death entered the world, through one act life will come
to all that death has grasped. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive." Good and bad, believer and unbeliever, male
and female, young and old will be raised from the dead and brought
into the presence of the Eternal Father. This is the work of Jesus of
Nazareth, who shed His blood in this great atonement to redeem all
mankind from the fall.

But this was only part of His work. He died not only to atone for
original sin but for actual sin, and to become the mediator between
God and man. "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of
sin;" this is the law. His blood was shed for the sins of the whole
world. For original sin unconditionally, for actual sin conditionally.
Mankind had no part in the commission of the original sin, they perform
nothing in the redemption therefrom. Its effects came through no acts
of theirs; those effects will be removed without anything they may
do. No conditions are required as preliminaries to redemption from
original sin; it was committed by Adam, it was atoned for by Jesus
Christ. But as each person is guilty of his own sins, so he must comply
with the conditions which will entitle him to the full benefits of
Christ's atonement for his own sins. Among these conditions are faith,
repentance and baptism.

Saving faith must necessarily include the Son as well as the Father in
its objects, because salvation comes from the Father through the Son,
and as Christ died for all, there is no other name but His given under
heaven whereby man can be saved. Repentance, as we have shown, includes
humility, which leads to obedience, and baptism follows, in which
is given to the repentant believer that remission of sins, obtained
through the shedding of Christ's blood in the place of the blood of the
sinner.

Baptism as a part of the gospel is the complete immersion in water
of a repentant believer, by a man having authority to act "in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." All this
is essential to its validity. The candidate must believe and repent.
The administrator must have divine authority. The ordinance must be
performed correctly. There is but "one baptism," as there is but "one
Lord and one faith." Any other kind of baptism is spurious and of no
effect.

The believing, repentant sinner, after making covenant with God to
forsake evil and keep His commandments, is taken down into the water by
the duly authorized and ordained representative of the Lord Jesus, and,
being dead to his old sins by repentance, is buried from his old life
by immersion in the watery grave; and then, raised up again to newness
of life, is "born of the water," and stands on earth a new creature in
Christ Jesus. He is clean before God. He is as pure from guilt as a
new-born babe. Though his sins were as scarlet, he is now washed whiter
than wool, and is prepared for the next step on the straight and narrow
path which leads to life eternal. Happy indeed is he. Joy unspeakable
fills his heart. Peace indescribable dwells in his bosom. Purity shines
in all his nature. He has entered by the door, into the sheep fold, and
is one of the flock of Christ. The load of his past misdeeds is rolled
from his shoulders and he is free. The liberty of the gospel is his.
Henceforth he should be the servant only of the King of Kings, and a
soldier of the cross.

But he has a warfare to fight which will require all his strength,
resolution and fortitude. For he has come out from the world and
the world will hate and persecute him, and malign him, and try to
despitefully use him. The flesh of his own being will be in conflict
with his spiritual nature now brought into actual life. And Satan, the
great adversary of the children of light, with his hosts of emissaries
will take special pains to tempt and try to allure him from the path
of salvation. But God will be on his side, and if he holds true to his
baptismal covenants he will come off more than conqueror over all, and
obtain the full and complete benefits of the atonement wrought out
by the spotless and merciful Savior, who henceforth is his loved and
loving Lord.



THIRD LEAF.

The Holy Ghost, its Nature, Office and Power--Conferred Through
the Laying on of Hands--Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit--How
Obtained--Their Object and Design--Effects of Its Withdrawal--Infinite
Riches of Its Full Inspiration.

The repentant, baptized believer arises from the tomb of water cleansed
from sin and washed pure of iniquity. He is spiritually resurrected.
His old life is gone. He is born again. This is a type of the bodily
resurrection to come. He is now prepared to receive the Holy Ghost,
which "dwelleth not in unclean tabernacles."

This is an endowment from on high. It is the Comforter which fills the
absent place of the personal Christ. It is a manifester of truth. It
bears witness of the Father and the Son. It is the light of eternity.
It reveals things present and past, and unfolds events that are to
come. It is the true scripture-maker. By it the prophets wrote the
word of the Lord. It proceeds from the presence of God. It is the
communicating element between man and his Maker. It is the source
from which flow the spiritual gifts of the gospel. Without it no one
can say from knowledge that Jesus is the Lord. Without it, the things
pertaining to immortal spheres cannot be comprehended by mortals.
Without it, no one can see the way which leads to eternal life. Without
it, none can enter the kingdom of God.

There is a set mode by which this great gift is conferred upon mankind.
God's house is a house of order. His laws are set in the spiritual
as in the physical universe, and there is no confusion in any of His
works. The ways of men are not His ways, and He does not bend them to
suit men's diversified notions. To obtain the gift of the Holy Ghost,
the necessary conditions must be complied with. These we have already
explained. The method by which it is conferred is, the laying on of
hands by men who have themselves received it and have been called of
God and ordained to administer it.

True faith, genuine repentance, correct baptism, properly administered,
are as surely to be followed by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost,
through the laying on of hands, authoritatively administered, as the
harvest is to come from seed sown in good soil and ripened by the rains
and sunshine of heaven, or as the results of a chemical experiment are
to be achieved when the needful elements are correctly compounded.

The effects of this gift upon the recipient are not generally of a
startling character. They are not necessarily physical. The chief
office of the Holy Ghost is to enlighten the internal man or woman.
It administers to the spirit. It brings peace, comfort and joy to the
soul. It gives assurance of divine acceptance; and it establishes
inward strength to resist sin and evil and lay hold upon all that is
good. But it does not convulse the system. It produces no contortions
of the countenance. It will not throw people to the earth as if they
were dead. Neither will it cause them to yell, shout, jump around in
paroxysms or act in an unseemly manner.

Its internal fruits are faith, knowledge, wisdom, joy, peace, patience,
temperance, long suffering, brotherly kindness and charity. Its
external gifts are manifested in prophecies, visions, discernments,
healings, miracles, power over evil spirits, speaking in various
tongues, interpretation of tongues, etc.

These several gifts are distributed according to the will of God among
the various recipients of the Holy Ghost. One person may receive
several of them. Some may not obtain any of those gifts which are
manifested outwardly. Neither are the latter always the most to be
desired. "Prophecy" is better than "tongues" as a gift, though the
latter is more showy, and wisdom and faith are better than either.
Divine knowledge with divine wisdom in its use is a gift of priceless
worth, bringing joy beyond expression to its possessor, and conferring
untold blessings upon others.

These various gifts of the Spirit are obtainable through the prayer of
faith. "Ask and it shall be given you" is the promise to the Saints.
And they are called Saints who have obeyed the laws and ordinances we
have explained, and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. But their
desires must be pure in order to obtain the blessings for which they
ask. These are not given as signs to be consumed on any one's lust.
Neither are they bestowed as wonders to create astonishment or feed
the love of the marvelous. They are designed for the comfort and
confirmation of the faith of the true and obedient believer, and as
tokens of the love of an indulgent Father, and they must be used in
wisdom, or they will be withdrawn and work injury instead of benefit.

The ceremony of the bestowal of the Holy Ghost is called confirmation.
As baptism is the birth of water, so confirmation is the birth or
baptism of the Spirit. Both are necessary to entrance into the kingdom
of God, whether that is viewed in the light of the Church on earth or
the glorious dominion of the Father in heaven. Only they who are led by
this Spirit are truly the "sons of God."

As it is bestowed through obedience, so it may be withdrawn through
disobedience. The condition of those who lose this gift after having
enjoyed it is truly lamentable. The light that was within them becomes
darkness, and their last state is worse than their first. Their
spiritual tastes become dead or vitiated, light seems to them darkness,
and that which was once their greatest delight becomes the object
of their deepest aversion. They then become a prey to influences of
evil; hatred and malice spring up in their hearts towards the children
of light; and the culmination of their career, if persisted in and
reclamation does not come, is the shedding of innocent blood, for which
there is no forgiveness.

The possessor of the Holy Ghost is infinitely rich; those who receive
it and lose it are of all men the poorest. But there are various
degrees of its possession. Many who obtain it walk but measurably
in its light. But there are a few who live by its whisperings, and
approach by its mediumship into close communion with heavenly beings of
the highest order. To them its light grows brighter every day. For them
are joys, anticipations and glorious hopes that thrill no other bosoms,
sweet experiences that earthly pleasures cannot bring, and a spiritual
growth towards the stature of Christ Jesus that eternity only will
fully unfold to general view.



FOURTH LEAF.

Divine Authority--Without it all Gospel Administrations Vain--It Cannot
be Acquired--The Priesthood, its Antiquity, Power and Blessings--The
Priesthood of Melchisedek--The Aaronic Priesthood--Priestcraft--The
Authority of God Must Come From God--Ordination--Value of the
Priesthood.

The ordinances of the gospel, being of divine origin, require divine
authority in their administration. Baptism at the hands of one not
appointed to attend to it is void. It is therefore without value
and without effect. If any unauthorized person were to lay hands
upon a baptized believer, even if the correct form of the ordinance
were observed, the Holy Ghost would not flow to the subject. No
matter how good the intentions of either party might be, the lack
of authority would vitiate the whole transaction. No company, firm,
society, court or government would acknowledge or become responsible
for the acts of any but its duly appointed and properly accredited
agents. Why then should the Great King endorse the doings of men who
take upon themselves duties not required of them, or bestow, through
their unauthorized performance, blessings that belong only to the
administrations of His chosen ambassadors?

It is strange that intelligent persons who clearly perceive the
necessity of valid authority in human affairs, should imagine that it
is not necessary in divine affairs; that while no earthly potentate
would be expected to pay the slightest attention to proceedings
of any pretended representative of a nation or ruler, the Eternal
Monarch of the universe must needs honor the acts of any individual
of a devotional cast of mind, who chooses to perform ceremonies and
ordinances in His great name.

A man may have such faith in God as to obtain choice blessings, behold
visions, receive heavenly gifts, and lay hold upon extraordinary
spiritual powers, and yet have no right to administer any ordinance in
the name of the Lord. Man cannot acquire this authority; it must be
conferred upon him in the appointed way.

In every age when the Almighty has had a church or organized body
of true worshipers on earth, He has sent among them men who were
authorized by Him to act in His name. Of such were Noah, Melchisedec,
Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James and John, and many others. They
were not only endowed with the Holy Ghost, but were also appointed and
set apart to administer needful rites in God's stead. What they sealed
on earth by this authority was sealed in heaven, and what they loosed
on earth was loosed in heaven. In other words, what they performed,
as directed of God, was accepted by Him and was of the same force as
though attended to by Him in person. Any authority less than this is
the same as no authority.

This delegated power from God to man is called the Priesthood.
Sometimes this term is used in reference to the men who hold this
authority. Properly speaking, however, it relates to the office rather
than the person. Melchisedec was a great high priest, and the authority
he held was eternal in its nature; without beginning of days or end of
life. It did not depend upon lineage either of father or mother, and
it is written that he who holds it in faithfulness "abideth a priest
continually;" that is, he retains it in this world, and also in the
world to come. Aaron received a Priesthood which was of another order,
and that ran in a family line, descending from father to son, and was
subordinate to the higher Priesthood after the order of Melchisedec.

John the Baptist held and administered the Aaronic or lesser
Priesthood, but Jesus received and acted in the Melchisedec or higher
Priesthood. So John could baptize the repentant for the remission of
sins, but could not confer the Holy Ghost as Jesus did. In like manner,
Philip, acting in the lesser Priesthood, could baptize the people of
Samaria, but had to send for Peter or some other apostle acting in the
higher Priesthood, to come down and lay hands upon them, that they
might receive the Holy Ghost.

Jesus did not take this authority upon Himself although he was the
Son of God. "He glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest," but
His Father called Him, saying, "Thou art a Priest forever, after the
order of Melchisedec." Moses and Elijah held similar authority in
their day and retained it when they left the sphere of mortality. And
they came and administered in that Priesthood to Jesus on the Mount of
Transfiguration. As the Father called Him, so called He the apostles,
and so, under divine direction, they called and ordained others.

Thus the Priesthood in both orders or branches was continued in the
early Christian Church, until through transgression, it was taken from
among men, and in its place a spurious priesthood, destitute of divine
authority, divine inspiration and divine power, was set up by ambitious
and designing men. This is priestcraft, the base counterfeit of the
true and heavenly coin.

When the Priesthood is once lost it cannot be regained merely by the
hopes, wishes or acts of men. No matter how strong a desire any one
may have to benefit his fellow man, he must not attempt to administer
to him any ordinance or ceremony of the gospel unless called of God so
to do. And this call does not come to men merely "in the heart" or the
imagination. A great many enthusiastic persons have felt themselves
"called" to the ministry. But this over-anxiety does not give them the
Priesthood, any more than strong wishes of a politician for the post
of minister to Berlin, clothe him with authority to represent this
government in the German empire.

The Priesthood is given by ordination. When there is no man living
in the flesh, who holds this authority, its restoration can only be
effected by the administration of heavenly beings who formerly held
it on the earth. They can return when so permitted and instructed,
as Moses and Elias did on the mount. But when the link is restored,
they never step over the line of the two spheres for this purpose
again, while there remains one man on the earth holding the legitimate
authority. For God's house is a house of order, and the rights and
powers of His Priesthood cannot be invaded with impunity either by
mortal men or the heavenly hosts.

Under divine inspiration and certain rules and provisions, those
who hold this Priesthood may ordain others by the laying on of
hands. Thus, while mankind are worthy of its administrations and
accompanying blessings, it may be perpetuated in the earth, a medium
of communication between God and man, a guide for the feet of erring
mortals to the straight and narrow path that leadeth unto life. Without
it, the inhabitants of the earth wander in spiritual darkness, and
those who presume to step forward as their teachers, are blind leaders
of the blind, and all their ministrations in the name of Him who never
sent them are vain, worthless and without force or virtue in time or
eternity.



FIFTH LEAF.

The Church of Christ--Its Unity--Christ's Church under His Personal
Supervision--Rules of Admission--No Others Available--Apostleship
the Chief Authority--Other Authorities and Ministers--Necessity of
These--The Church Progressive--It Casts off Evil-Doers--Brotherhood of
Its Members--Mission of the Church.

The Church of Christ is an organized body, consisting of those
who believe in Him and have shown their faith by obedience to the
initiatory ordinances of His gospel. It may contain many branches, but
they will all be connected with the main body, and will all have the
same characteristics; that is they will hold the same doctrines and be
animated by the same spirit. No matter how many sections of the Church
there may be, or how widely they may be separated geographically, they
will be governed by the same rule of discipline, and be under the
direction of the same head.

The Church of Christ must be established under His own supervision,
and according to His commandments. A society of persons professing to
believe in Him, but organized without any communication from Him, is
not and cannot be His Church, whatever its members may call it, or
however sincere they may be in their intentions. Some suppose that
every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is, by virtue of that
faith, a member of His Church. This is a palpable error. As well might
it be assumed that all who believe that the Order of Masonry is a
correct form of brotherhood, are by that belief made members of the
Order.

All societies have some established regulations for the admission of
members. The Church of Christ is no exception to the rule. But the
initiatory rites in His Church are prescribed by Him, and no one has
the right to change them or substitute others in their place. They
are uniform for all people, of both sexes, of every race and of every
grade of society. The churches established by men have various modes
of receiving members and of conducting church government. This is one
proof that they _are_ the churches of men, and not of Jesus Christ.

We have already explained the first principles of the gospel which
must be received and obeyed in order to obtain a standing in Christ's
Church. Those who have believed, repented, been baptized by one having
authority for the remission of sins, and have been confirmed by the
laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, are thus made
members of the Church of Christ. And this is the only way of admission.
All who have not complied with these rules are outside of the Church
and can get in by no other door than this appointed entrance. Christ
will not accept the devices and ordinances and ceremonies ordained of
men. They are not His, and are of no force or effect so far as the
kingdom of heaven is concerned, either in this world or in the world to
come.

Christ is the head of the Church, as man is the head of the woman.
But as the woman has also a head to her own personality, so has the
Church. The apostleship is the principal governing authority thereof.
When Christ ascended on high, the earthly headship devolved upon His
apostles, of whom Peter, James and John were the chief. There were also
the seventy appointed by the Savior as His traveling ministers, and
He gave other officers to the Church, such as evangelists, pastors,
elders, bishops, teachers, deacons, etc. All these were under the
direction of the apostles, who were inspired, and instructed, and led
by Jesus, even after His ascension, and were filled with the Holy
Ghost, which bears record of the Father and the Son.

A church which has not inspired apostles nor prophets, cannot be the
Church of Christ, for these are essential to its full constitution. All
the officers we have named are necessary, in their various positions,
to the complete organization of the "body of Christ."

Through these appointed servants of God, the members of the Church are
instructed in their duties, led along in the path of truth, admonished
of their faults, rebuked for their transgressions, brought to the
unity of the faith, corrected of their errors, and when they become
evil-doers, and reformation is not probable, disfellowshipped from
communion or excommunicated from the Church.

The Church of Christ is progressive. That is, it advances in the
knowledge of the truth. As fast as its members are prepared for
additional light, through the practice of principles already revealed,
new manifestations are given, for the growth of all who will receive
the truths unfolded towards the fullness of the stature of Christ
Jesus. Old truths are not discarded, but new truths are added, and
clearer light is thrown upon what was previously known. Thus the Church
advances and prepares its communicants for a higher sphere when they
pass away from the plane of mortal existence.

But while it casts off no truth, it eliminates from itself, by natural
process, everything obnoxious to its health and vitality. Corrupt
and wicked persons occasionally find their way into its sanctuary;
some, after being washed from their impurities, turn again to their
filthiness, and others become rebellious and discordant. These
incongruous elements are gradually separated from the body. For the
Church is a living thing, and casts off that which does not assimilate
or which is inimical to its growth, harmony and progress.

The members of the Church are all united by a fraternal bond. They
are all brethren and sisters, no matter what their condition in life,
no matter of what nationality. Indeed nationality is swallowed up
in fraternity. They are no longer Jew or Gentile, English, German,
Danish or American, they are all one in Christ Jesus. They are no more
Catholics or Protestants, Dissenters or Episcopalians, but are baptized
by one spirit into one body, and in all essential principles have one
faith, and are joined together in the same mind and the same judgment.

The Church of Christ in this and every other age, is connected with the
Church of previous ages. That portion behind the vail works in harmony
with the new Church in the flesh, and its members, whether in the body
or out of the body, move to the common end: the establishment of the
kingdom of heaven upon the earth, the spread of the principles of the
true Church, until "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that
Jesus is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Then the Church will have filled its mission--to preach the gospel,
administer in its ordinances, unite the Saints, manifest the things
of God, establish righteousness, bring together the heavens and the
earth and make straight the path for the Lord Jesus. And the vail of
the covering will be taken away; the Church of the Firstborn will be
one in all things beneath and above; evil will be swept from the earth;
and truth, peace, harmony and praise will glorify this planet and its
inhabitants, who will know God, from the least even unto the greatest.



SIXTH LEAF.

Apostasy from the Primitive Church--When it Commenced--The Apostles
Predicted it--The Apostasy Universal--The Woman Clothed With the
Sun, and the Scarlet-Clothed Harlot--What They Represent--The
Reformation--Spread of Truth but Lack of Authority--Multiplication of
Sects--No Voice From Heaven.

Comparison of the various sects of modern Christendom with the Church
of Christ as established by Jesus and His apostles, which was briefly
described in the preceding chapter, will show that there has been a
wide and remarkable departure from "the faith once delivered to the
saints." It is contrary both to scripture and sound reason to think
that Christ would set up two or more discordant religious systems
to distract mankind and cause strife and contention. "God is not
the author of confusion." There is but one straight and narrow path
that leadeth unto life. The mind of God is one; the minds of men are
various. The fact then that there are various opposing religions in
the world is conclusive evidenced that men have been engaged in their
invention. It is also clear that they have established very imperfect
imitations of the true Church of Christ.

The departure from the order, doctrine, ordinances and spirit of
primitive Christianity commenced at a very early period. Contentions
began to creep in among the early saints, and they soon commenced to
array themselves in factions, some being of Paul, others of Apollos,
others of Cephas, etc. And the inspired leaders of the Church foresaw
the great apostasy which would take place, as may be seen from their
epistles.

Paul declared that the day of the Lord's second advent would not
dawn until a "falling away" should occur. He described the condition
of apostate Christendom, when the people "would not endure sound
doctrine," but would "heap to themselves teachers, having itching
ears;" when "doctrines of devils" should be taught instead of the pure
gospel; when they would have "a form of godliness, but deny the power
thereof;" and Peter declared that false teachers would arise in the
place of the duly authorized servants of God, and bring in damnable
heresies; who "through covetousness would make merchandise" of the
souls of men; and by whom "the way of truth would be evil spoken of."
This "mystery of iniquity" had already begun to work even in their day,
and rapidly increased after their departure.

The combined powers of the world, the flesh and the devil, made such
inroads upon the Church of Christ, that, by the time when John, the
beloved disciple, was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he received
the great vision known as the Book of Revelation, only seven branches
of the Church were worthy of divine mention, and some of them had
become so corrupt that terrible denunciations were hurled against them,
and they were threatened with complete rejection.

In that same vision the inspired apostle beheld the utter and universal
apostasy of the Church and the spread of spurious Christianity until
_all nations_ were "made drunk with the wine of the wrath of the
fornication" of Babylon, "the mother of harlots and abominations."
Instead of the chaste Church of Christ, clothed with the sun, the
moon under her feet and the crown of twelve stars upon her head, the
scarlet-clothed impostor, sitting upon the beast, grasping a golden cup
full of filthiness for the whole world to drink. Regal pomp and state
power, instead of the solar glory of the Melchisedec and the lunar
rays of the Aaronic Priesthoods, with the stellar crown of apostleship
shining at the head! Mystery instead of light! Painted gaudiness
instead of modest purity! Names of blasphemy instead of that one sacred
name at which every knee should bow!

When the lights that Christ kindled on earth to lead mankind in the
only true way were put out by the hands of murderous men, darkness
overspread the world, and "gross darkness covered the people." Errors
multiplied. Heresies sprang up like rank weeds. The Spirit of Christ
gradually withdrew. And when what was left of the form of Christianity
became allied to the softened paganism of the Romish empire, the angels
looked down from afar upon another triumph of the arch adversary, who
rules as prince of this world, and reigns in the hearts of the children
of disobedience.

The Papal church, seated upon the Romish State, was fitly prefigured by
the woman upon the beast. The Church of Christ was gone, without even
a shadow of its presence to be seen upon the earth. All nations were
blinded and intoxicated by the mystery and abominations, the heresies
and perversions, the pomps and vanities of this spurious ecclesiastical
system, with its popes and cardinals in the place of apostles and
prophets, its priestcraft in the place of the Priesthood, and its
force, bloodshed, cruelty and lust in the place of the love, liberty,
peace and charity of the departed Church of the Redeemer.

After a time came the reformation. Protestants against the tyranny,
falsehood and gross villainies of this blasphemous hierarchy sounded
aloud the story of her abominations and shook all Christendom with
the force of their eloquence. Anathematized and excommunicated from
the mother church, they established new churches, discarding many
errors but retaining as many more. Still further "reformations" were
inaugurated, originating more churches, and thus sects produced sects,
and as religious liberty increased so religious systems multiplied,
until the term Christianity covered an incongruous mass of discordant
elements, representing all shades of human opinion, without a single
authoritative voice deputed of heaven to harmonize and bring them into
order.

For, though immense good accrued to the world through the exposure of
error and the unfolding of truth, which were the consequence of the
reformation and its successive developments, and though many excellent
mea spent their lives and suffered cruel deaths for principles of
righteousness, yet there was no direct communication established
between them and the heavens, and that authority by which the apostles
administered for and in behalf of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Ghost was still unrestored to man. There was no inspired prophet,
no gifted seer, no appointed revelator through whom the will of God
could be made known. Therefore, the ordinances of the gospel could not
be administered acceptably to God, and all such ceremonies as were
established among the various sects were of necessity void and without
virtue in heaven.

So the world rolled on, and men framed religions, all containing some
truth as well as some errors, and many persons who would have done
well in advocating what they believed to be right, in their own names,
undertook to assume the name of the Trinity, and to officiate as though
authorized by Jesus Christ, while they openly admitted that there had
been no communication from on high for centuries, and maintained that
the days of revelation were gone forever.

And thus the effects of Mystery, Babylon, the Mother of abominations,
were felt directly or indirectly throughout all the nations professing
to be Christian, and millions upon millions of mistaken souls passed
behind the vail without receiving the principles and ordinances of
salvation, and the living and the dead were left in the spiritual
darkness of centuries of apostasy to wait until the dawning of the
great and last dispensation, the times of restitution, when the
crowning act of God's mercy to man should be performed, and the
ushering in of the millennial day should bring again to the world, with
increasing glory, the gospel, the Priesthood, the blessings and the
powers of all former ages, for the salvation of the human race and the
permanent establishment of the Church and kingdom of God, no more to be
thrown down forever.



SEVENTH LEAF.

Restoration of the Gospel--Ministration of an Angel--Divine Knowledge
and Divine Authority--Keys of Former Dispensations Revealed--Rebuilding
of the Church of Christ--The Signs Following--Coming of
Elijah--Dispensation of the Fullness of Times--Triumph of the Truth.

Having shown the universal apostasy from the Church established by
Christ and His Apostles, we now turn with pleasure from the dark
picture of error, strife, confusion and priestcraft, painted in sombre
hues during a long succession of centuries, to a more cheering and
truly delightful subject.

The same inspired apostles who foretold the general departure from
the "way of truth," also predicted the restoration of the gospel, the
ushering in of a later and final dispensation, and the ultimate triumph
of God's kingdom upon the whole face of the earth. After seeing the
dominion of the mother of abominations extending to all the kingdoms
of the world, John, the beloved, beheld her entire destruction. This
was preceded in the vision by the coming of an angel from heaven with
the everlasting gospel for every nation, kindred, tongue and people,
and the cry from heaven, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues."

We are able to state, with the most positive assurance, that the angel
with the gospel has come, and that the voice from heaven has been
uttered as a warning to all nations; that the gospel will be preached
and the warning will be sounded, by divine authority, to every tribe,
and nation, and tongue. Joseph Smith was the chosen instrument in the
hands of God to receive the glad message and direct its promulgation to
all the world. Angels do not travel and preach to mankind in person;
when they bring tidings from on high they deliver the heavenly mandates
to a chosen man who, in turn, makes them known to his fellows.

But though the ministry of angels is not general, all people may know
thereof of a surety by obedience to the commandments revealed, which
is followed by a divine witness of their truth and of the fact of the
manifestation. Thus, while Joseph Smith was selected to receive direct
divine communications, every one who in faith obeys them, obtains a
satisfactory testimony that the message is true and that the messenger
was authorized to declare it.

But receiving the gospel, whether by angelic ministrations or
otherwise, is one thing, and obtaining authority to preach it and
administer its ordinances is another. Knowledge, light and revelation
may be enjoyed, and yet the favored recipient of these blessings may
be without any authority to perform any official act in the name of
the Lord. Joseph Smith not only received the ministrations of the
angel bearing the everlasting gospel, but also obtained the right to
officiate in all its ordinances, rites, ceremonies and endowments. He
did not receive this authority from man. As we have already shown, it
had departed from the earth centuries before. No amount of learning
would bring it. No college, prelate, potentate or priest could confer
it. All the wealth of the world could not purchase it. It does not come
by the will of man.

How did Joseph Smith gain it? Holy men of old, who held the keys of
this power in former dispensations, came to earth as ministering
spirits and ordained him to the same offices which they held in
mortality. First came John the Baptist, who was beheaded for the
truth's sake, bearing the keys of the Aaronic or lesser Priesthood, and
ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to the authority thereof, with
the right to preach the gospel of repentance and administer baptism for
the remission of sins. But as John did not hold the power when on earth
to confer the Holy Ghost, he did not presume to bestow it upon others.
Next came Peter, James and John with the keys of the Apostleship, of
the holy Melchisedek Priesthood and of the dispensation of the fullness
of times, which they conferred upon Joseph and Oliver, giving them
authority to ordain others to this ministry and to confirm baptized
believers by the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The lesser Priesthood holds the power of the ministration of angels
and authority to administer in temporal things. The greater Priesthood
holds the power of communion with the Highest and of attending to all
things, spiritual and temporal; for the salvation and exaltation of
man till he reaches the actual presence of the Eternal God, and shines
forth in the fullness of the attributes of his Almighty Father.

Thus power was restored to rebuild the Church of Christ, to preach the
true gospel; to baptize penitent believers for the remission of sins;
to bestow upon them the Holy Ghost, bearing witness of the Father and
the Son and of acceptance with them; to appoint and ordain all the
various ministers necessary for the publishing of the truth to all
nations, the work of the ministry, the perfecting of the Saints and the
edifying and government of "the body of Christ."

So the Church was set up in these latter times. Humble believers
received the word with gladness, and obeying it, obtained from God the
witness of its truth. The signs promised to believers followed them.
They spoke in other tongues, prophesied, saw visions, dreamed divine
dreams and enjoyed all the gifts of the Church as did the saints of
old. The sick were healed by the laying on of hands, devils were cast
out, the deaf heard, the eyes of the blind were opened, the lame leaped
for joy, the tongue of the dumb was loosed, the heavens were opened to
human view, and the Holy Ghost, as on the day of pentecost, rested down
in power upon the Saints of the new dispensation.

Then they _knew_ for themselves. Doubt had fled, the darkness was
dispersed, Satan trembled, priestcraft raged, and while the tidings
of the restored gospel caused joy in heaven and praise on earth, the
powers of evil in and out of the flesh conspired to fight the truth,
make war upon believers and persecute the servants of God unto death.
But the Lord strengthened the hands of His people and poured out light
and knowledge from on high. The hidden things of ages were brought
forth. Revelation after revelation was multiplied to the Church.

Then came Elijah the Prophet, bearing the keys of the turning of the
hearts of the fathers to the children and of the children to the
fathers, that the link of the broken chain of the Priesthood through
the ages might be welded together, and the spirit world be known to
men in the flesh. Next came Moses, the man of God with the keys of the
gathering of Israel, that the remnants might be brought in from their
long dispersion and inherit the lands promised to their forefathers.
And Raphael and Gabriel and other holy messengers also appeared, each
in their order, bearing the keys of their respective ministries when
living as men upon the earth, that all the powers needful for the
establishment of the great and last dispensation of the fullness of
times might be centered upon the head of the man chosen to open it to
the world, and that he might bestow them upon others called and chosen
by the spirit of revelation.

Glory to God in the highest! The straight and narrow way is opened.
The silence of ages is broken. Jehovah speaks from out the bosom
of eternity. Angels again come down from the abodes of bliss.
Communication is restored between man and his Maker. The Holy Ghost
again comforts, reveals and bears witness. The sacred gifts are once
more enjoyed. All earth shall hear the glad tidings. Every soul shall
be warned. And though Joseph, the chosen seer, and many of his brethren
have become martyrs for the truth's sake, and the bosom of mother earth
is stained red with the blood of the persecuted Saints, the Church
re-established, the Priesthood restored, the truths now revealed shall
never, be taken from earth again, but they shall spread and increase
and prevail and triumph, until darkness and evil, and sin and Satan
shall give way, and this planet, ransomed and redeemed shall be crowned
with the glory and presence of its rightful King, Jesus the anointed,
the sinless Son of the omnipotent God.



EIGHTH LEAF.

Apparent Doom of the Majority of Mankind--No Salvation but by Jesus
Christ--Is the State of Man Fixed at Death?--The Common Belief
Incorrect--Preaching to the Dead--The Spirit Without the Body
Sentient--Nature of Paradise--All People to Hear the Gospel Either in
this Life or the Next.

One of the great difficulties in the way of inquiring minds, desirous
of understanding gospel truth, is the apparent doom of the great bulk
of the human family to perdition. The declaration is plainly and
positively made in the scriptures that there is no other name given
under heaven whereby man can be saved, but the name of Christ Jesus.
It is also proclaimed that "except a man be born of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

Many millions of the earth's inhabitants have passed away without
hearing the name of Jesus, or having any opportunity of the privilege
of the second birth. And the query arises, must all these souls be lost
in consequence? And if so can the God of the Bible be just? Further;
the question comes up, If the world has been in error so long, and the
Church of Latter-day Saints is the only true Church of Christ, what has
become of the generations of professing Christians, who lived and died
in the centuries between the loss of the gospel and the Priesthood and
their restoration in the present age?

The difficulty arises through lack of a correct understanding of the
plan of salvation, and through the erroneous doctrines of unauthorized
teachers. Orthodox "Christianity" affirms that the future state of man
is fixed at death; that the departing spirit goes either to an eternal
heaven or an everlasting hell; and that there is no possibility of
change, but, to use a familiar saying, "as the tree falls, so it lies."
The light of modern revelation rolls back the darkness of ages and
unfolds the glorious plan of human redemption in its fullness, and the
illuminated soul perceives the triumph of justice in union with mercy,
through the extension of gospel privileges beyond the narrow sphere of
this mortal life.

Why should the opportunity to learn and the power to obey the truths of
the gospel be confined to dwellers in the flesh? Is it to be supposed
that when the immortal spirit leaves its domicile of clay its powers
of preception, of reason, of reception or rejection of truth or error,
of submission or rebellion to the decrees of heaven, are buried with
the decaying body? The idea is contrary to all the hopes of the life
to come kindled in the heart by the promises of the gospel. It is also
antiscriptural. There is nothing in holy writ which establishes any such
absurdity. Paul declares that all men shall be judged by the gospel
which he preached. If this is true and God is just, must not all men
_hear_ that gospel and have the opportunity of receiving or rejecting
it? And if this privilege has not been granted to them while in the
body, must it not be afforded them when out of the body?

Peter states that the Lord shall "judge the quick and the dead," and
explains that "For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that
are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but
live according to God in the spirit." He mentions this in connection
with his history of the mission and works of Jesus, who, he tells us,
was "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: by which
also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison."

This accounts for the whereabouts of the Savior during the interval
between his death on the cross and His resurrection from the sepulchre
in the rock. At His appearance to Mary in the garden, after He had
risen, He said, "I am not yet ascended to my father." During the
three days of His body's sleep in the tomb He was continuing the work
the Father had given Him to do. He was preaching "deliverance to the
captives, and the opening of the prison to them that were bound."

That these spirits in prison had been in the flesh, Peter makes clear
by stating that they were "disobedient * * in the days of Noah, while
the ark was a preparing." The gospel was thus preached also to the
dead, that they might have the same opportunities and be judged by the
same gospel as the living.

The exercise of faith is an operation of the spirit of man, and so is
repentance. These lead to obedience and obedience to acceptance with
God. The body without the spirit is dead and can neither believe,
repent nor obey, but the spirit without the body is active, sentient
and capable of exercising all of its powers that are adapted to a
spiritual sphere. It is only through the medium of the body, however,
that the spirit can handle, experience and fully control or be
subjected to corporeal things. That part of the gospel which pertains
to earthly ordinances and observances is, therefore, unapproachable to
the disembodied. But they can learn and submit to all its spiritual
laws and influences and "live according to God in the spirit." They
can hear the gospel, for Christ preached it to many of them; they
can obey, for He not only proclaimed liberty to them but "He led
captivity captive," and they must therefore have repented and become
acceptable to God. As one of the early fathers of the Church said of
the slain Redeemer, "He went into hades alone, but he came forth with a
multitude."

The Jews of Christ's day believed that there were two divisions of the
spirit world--Paradise and Tartarus. The good went to the former, the
bad to the latter. Jesus promised the repentant thief on the cross:
"To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." This is not the abode of
the Eternal Father but of departed spirits, where they wait until the
resurrection. A place of instruction and preparation, of peace and
rest, of joy and serenity, of progress toward perfection. And into this
abode of the just, Christ led from Tartarus the spirits purified and
chastened through their captivity, who were disobedient in the flesh
in the days of Noah, but had suffered for their rebellion, and in the
spirit had gladly received the gospel through His ministrations.

And thus, in the due time of the Lord all who have dwelt upon the earth
in any age, Jew, Gentile, heathen, Christian, may hear the glad tidings
of the everlasting gospel preached by those appointed and authorized,
and have an opportunity of repentance, improvement and reconciliation.
But the ordinances which belong to the sphere of mortality cannot be
received in a spiritual estate; they belong to the flesh and must
be attended to in the flesh. Consideration of the means provided
by Infinite Goodness through which the benefits of those essential
ordinances can be obtained by believing, repentant, disembodied
persons, must be left till the unfolding of another leaf.



NINTH LEAF.

Decrees of God Fixed in the Spiritual as in the Natural
Universe--Ordinances Essential--The Living may be Baptized for the
Dead--The Principle of Proxy--The Place for the Administration of
Vicarious Ordinances--Revelation of Elijah, the Prophet--Connection
with the Spirit World--True Order of Communication--Blessed Results of
Work Done for the Dead.

The divine fiat has gone forth that "Except a man be born of water and
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." This is a
fixed law. The same certainty that is exhibited in the government of
the material universe obtains in the spiritual domain, and is as much a
necessity in one as in the other. As man cannot change the revolutions
of the planets nor alter the principles that underlie all motion and
regulate all matter, so he cannot turn aside the decrees of Jehovah,
nor modify, in the least degree, any rule or commandment pertaining to
the everlasting gospel. Neither will He who reigns in the unseen world,
as well as in the sphere perceived by the senses, swerve from His
established laws in the former any more than in the latter.

Baptism, or the birth of water in the form and mode already described,
is an essential ordinance. There are others equally necessary in their
time and place in the divine plan of human redemption. They must be
rightly received and administered, or the blessings that spring from
them, as their natural fruit, cannot be enjoyed. As aliens cannot be
admitted to the rights and privileges of citizenship in an earthly
government, without complying with the naturalization laws in such
case made and provided, so aliens from the heavenly kingdom cannot
be received into its dominion, nor be adopted into the family of
the Eternal King, without obeying the laws set as the conditions of
admission.

These laws and ordinances will be made known to the inhabitants of
this planet, either in the flesh or in the disembodied condition. They
will have the opportunity of receiving or rejecting them on the agency
given to man, that a just judgment may be rendered in the great day
of accounts. But ordinances, such as baptism, the laying on of hands
for confirmation, ordination, marriage, etc., belong to the corporeal
sphere. They are set for the state of probation.

Water is an earthly element, or compound of elements, and the blessings
ordained to flow from the death, burial and new birth, typified by
authorized baptism therein, cannot be secured in any other way.
Millions of earth's sons and daughters have passed out of the body
without obeying the law of baptism. Many of them will gladly accept
the word and law of the Lord when it is proclaimed to them in the
spirit world. But they cannot there attend to ordinances that belong
to the sphere which they have left. Can nothing be done in their case?
Must they forever be shut out of the kingdom of heaven? Both justice
and mercy join in answering "yes" to the first and "no" to the last
question. What, then, is the way of their deliverance?

The living may be baptized for the dead. Other essential ordinances
may be attended to vicariously. This glorious truth, hid from human
knowledge for centuries, has been made known in this greatest of all
divine dispensations. It is indeed light in the midst of darkness.
It shines in the depths of the shrouded past, illuminates the mystic
future, and reveals the infinite love of God and His tender mercy
over all His works. It explains the meaning of scripture texts long
considered difficult and obscure. It links by loving ties the living
with their dead. It shows why the fathers "without us cannot be made
perfect." It opens the way of redemption for the hosts of departed
heathens. It brings together in one all who are in Christ, even though
parted by the vail that is drawn between the physical and spiritual
spheres. It gives men and women the power to become "Saviors on Mount
Zion," Jesus being the great Captain in the army of redeemers.

In God's house all things are done in order. There is a right way and
a proper place for the administration of ordinances for the dead. The
living relatives of those who have departed without an opportunity of
obeying the earthly requirements of the plan of salvation, if they
have themselves been born of the water and of the spirit, stand in
the name and place of the departed and receive the ordinances to be
placed to the credit of the dead. Either sex represents its own. Men
are not baptized for women, nor women for men. The first-born son in
each family has rights of priority connected with this vicarious work
if he has proven himself worthy. The ordinances must be administered by
those having authority, being set apart for the work, and must be duly
witnessed and properly recorded. The books on earth must tally with the
records in heaven.

The place for these administrations is in a temple built to the Most
High God, after the pattern revealed. The baptismal font, like the
brazen sea in the temple of Solomon, is placed in the basement, under
the place where the living are wont to assemble, typifying the place
for the dead, all things spiritual having their correspondence with
things natural. That which is done on earth, according to the divine
instructions, is acknowledged in heaven, and is of force and effect
in the world to come. Herein is manifested the power of the Holy
Priesthood, loosing or binding on earth, and it is loosed or bound in
heaven, all according to the commandments and revelation of the Most
High through Jesus the anointed.

This principle of proxy runs like a thread of gold throughout the
entire robe of salvation. Christ is the proxy of blood for the whole
race of sinners. The Spotless One died in the place of the impure. He
is the offering for the deadly sin of Adam. He is the propitiation for
the evil deeds of a world. The lamb on the smoking altar, the scapegoat
turned into the wilderness, the sprinkling of atonement, all the
sacrifices of the old covenant, as well as the infinite one of the new,
are based on the doctrine of vicarious action and the divine acceptance
of authorized substitutes.

The manifestation of this truth in the last dispensation came from the
Prophet Elijah in the temple built to the Almighty by the Latter-day
Saints in Kirtland, Ohio. On the third of April, 1836, he who was
caught up to heaven without death, appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver
Cowdery, and committed the keys of the power to "turn the heart of
the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their
fathers," that the earth might be saved from a curse. The living are
thus authorized, under prescribed conditions, to act for the dead, and
the fathers in the spirit world look to the children in the flesh to
perform for them the works which they were unable to attend to while in
the body.

Here is the peculiar blessing upon the heads of the Saints in the
grand, culminating and completing dispensation of the fullness of
times. To labor for the redemption of their progenitors until every
lost link in the line of their ancestry, back to the Abrahamic stock
from which they originally sprang, shall be taken up and welded into
the perfect family chain. Herein is seen one of the blessings attending
the perpetuation of a man's name in the earth; to die leaving no seed
being considered in olden times, among the people of God, one of the
greatest of calamities. Indeed the glory and dominion, and joy and
rapture of the future state will be found to have intimate relation
to the family condition, and the promise to Abraham of a numerous
posterity was not merely of earthly portent, but reached into the
exaltation and beatitudes of eternal existence.

This glorious doctrine bears the key to the sphere within the vail. It
regulates the communion of the living with the dead. It saves those who
receive it from improper and deceptive spirit communications. Tidings
to the living from their friends who have passed away do not come
in disorder and confusion, nor by the will of men or women, whether
corrupt or pure. Order is maintained in all the works and ways of God.
Knowledge that is needful concerning the spiritual sphere will come
through an appointed channel and in the appointed place. The temple
where the ordinances can be administered for the dead, is the place to
hear from the dead. The Priesthood in the flesh, when it is necessary,
will receive communications from the Priesthood behind the vail. Most
holy conversations on all things pertaining to the redemption of the
race, belong in the places prepared in the temples.

The Saints in the flesh are required to use all due diligence in
obtaining their genealogies by the means at command, and a spirit has
moved upon men in the world to collect and perfect and publish the
records of their ancestors, by which, thousands upon thousands of
acceptable names have been obtained, and the work of vicarious baptism
already done is immense. But that which remains to be accomplished is
so vast, that no mind, unless illuminated by the light of God, can see
how it can ever be performed and perfected. Yet it will be done, and
blessed are they who aid in the heavenly labor! With what joy will they
be greeted by the spirits of their progenitors when they meet them
in Paradise! What honor will crown their brows in the day of reward
and compensation! They will stand among the saviors, and shine among
their kindred who are redeemed, like glorious suns in the heavenly
constellations!

This divine plan of vicarious action, is one of the broadest, brightest
and loveliest leaves in the blessed tree of life. It bears a healing
balm for millions upon millions of earth's sons and daughters who have
passed away without hearing the only name whereby man can be saved, or
who, having heard, were never taught the way of salvation as ordained
through Jesus Christ. It is redolent of the love and mercy of the
Eternal Father, and bears the sweet perfume of charity and gratitude of
the children reaching out after the fathers, of the fathers blest in
the works of the children, and of kindred affection enlarged, cemented
and perpetuated for ever and ever. It parts the vail between the
physical and the spiritual, it softens the heart, and brings the living
and the dead nearer to God, and it sanctifies the soul to obedience,
worship and devotion, filling it with reverence and adoration of Him
who has devised this broad and universal plan for the redemption of the
human race.



TENTH LEAF.

Universality of Death--Results of the Transgression of Law--Dissolution
of the Body not the End of Existence--What is Resurrection?--The
Spiritual Body of Jesus--All to be Raised from the Dead--The Order
of the Resurrection--Necessity of an Immortal Body--Ignorance of the
Laws of Nature--Matter Indestructible--Possibilities of Creative
Energy--Life and Immortality Brought to Light.

Death is the common heritage. It is a legacy to all the children,
left by our first progenitor. It is the result of transgression, the
penalty of violated law. The immortal pair who dwelt in Eden fell into
mortality through sin. Immortality is the power of continued existence.
But "all things are governed by law." Sin is law-breaking. To live for
ever requires perpetual obedience to the laws of everlasting life.
"That which is governed by law is preserved by law." By the same rule
reversed, the reverse obtains. Therefore, that which is immortal and
obeys not the laws of immortality, will become mortal. If obedience
insures preservation, disobedience involves destruction. Law reigns
in the highest as well as in the lower spheres of being. Eternal life
involves eternal compliance with the laws of existence.

All seeds produce their own kind. Mortal beings beget mortality. When
the parents of our race became mortal through breaking the law of their
immortal condition, they brought death to their offspring as well as
to themselves. "In Adam all die." The curse of death smites the whole
family. "It is appointed unto man once to die." No ingenuity he can
exercise or precautions he can adopt will avert the impending doom.
The decree has been proclaimed, "Thou shalt surely die," and it is
irrevocable. The taint that came from the tree of death whose fruit was
forbidden, descends to all generations, and every variety of form and
feature, and color and stature, and tendency and peculiarity, have the
one common characteristic, the certainty of death.

But is the dissolution of the body the end of existence? Not at all.
We have seen that the part of man that comes from heaven lives on when
that which comes from the earth returns to the earth. Yet this is not
sufficient. The query arises, Shall this body, made mortal through
transgression, remain for ever under the penalty of the broken law, or
are there some means of expiation for the sin, and restoration from the
doom, its consequence? Are all the associations formed in the flesh and
pertaining to this mortal state, to perish with the decayed body and be
scattered like the dust to which it is resolved? Are the fond relations
of husband and wife, and parent and child to be dissolved forever? Is
this exquisitely, "fearfully and wonderfully" formed mechanism, with
the experiences of its temporal existence, to be obliterated and lose
its identity in the material universe?

The answer comes down from the remotest ages, like sweet and sacred
music whose tones swell and increase as the chorus is joined by the
voices of the prophets and saints of each succeeding dispensation,
until the grand harmony thrills every respondent soul. The burden of
the song is in the words of the poetic Isaiah: "Thy dead men shall
live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye
that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth
shall cast out the dead." And the ringing tones of Job the ancient
are heard as a solo whose melody reaches unto heaven: "I know that my
Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God!"

The faith of all people who have communed with God or have been
inspired by the Holy Ghost, has been that they should be resurrected
from the dead. They not only had the assurance of spirit life beyond
the grave, but of the revivification of the material body. The
signification of the word "resurrect" is "to stand up again." That
which was laid down was to be raised up. The release of the immortal
spirit from the mortal body would not answer to this. It was this
mortal that was to put on immortality, this corruptible that was to put
on incorruption.

To make this matter certain, Jesus, who expiated the primal sin, after
being offered on the cross as the great sacrifice, gave up the ghost.
His lifeless body was taken down, embalmed and buried in a new tomb
hewed out of the rock. It was guarded by Roman soldiers. On the third
day from the interment that body came forth alive from the grave.
The same Jesus who was crucified appeared again among His disciples,
and proved that the same body interred was brought forth again, by
exhibiting the wounds made by the nails and the spear, by permitting
them to touch Him, by eating and conversing with them, and by repeated
visits.

This was not a mere manifestation of the immortality of the soul, but
a demonstration of the resurrection of the body. Yet that body was
transformed. The corruptible blood was purged from the veins, and
incorruptible spiritual fluid occupied its place. It was buried a
natural body, it was resurrected a spiritual body. Here then, was a
pattern of that which is to come. This was the "first fruits of them
that slept," a glorious sample of the great harvest of the summer of
redemption.

Now the sacrifice of the Savior had as one of its chief objects the
restoration of mankind to the condition lost by the fall. "As in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Death came to
the race through one man's sin; life comes to the race through one
man's atonement for that sin. The remedy is as broad as the disease.
The plan is perfect. This is why Christ is called "The resurrection
and the life." By virtue of His triumph over sin and His voluntary
submission to death, which had no valid claim upon Him, being sinless,
He obtained the keys of redemption for all the sleeping dust of the
Adamic family. So He made no idle boast or mystic figure of speech when
he declared, "The hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves
shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation."

The raising of the dead, though universal, is not simultaneous. When
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, He will first redeem those that
are in Him. Having put on Christ and received of His spirit, they will
come forth at His call to meet Him. They who have part in the first
resurrection are those who have died in the Lord and are blessed and
holy. Their bodies will be fashioned like unto His glorious body.
Having been planted in the likeness of His death they will be also in
the likeness of His resurrection. That is, they will be quickened by
the celestial glory and be placed in a condition to receive a fullness
thereof, and inherit all things as joint heirs with Christ.

The wicked dead remain unquickened for a thousand years. They reap the
fruits of their evil seeds sown in lives of transgression. They drink
the dregs of a bitter cup. Some are beaten with many stripes, others
with but a few. Justice metes out to them their dues. And when they
come forth to stand up in their bodies, they will not be quickened by
the celestial glory, but by that for which they are fitted by their
respective conditions consequent upon their earthly acts, and they will
occupy positions accordingly. But all will be redeemed in due season
from the grave and stand the scrutiny of the All-Seeing Eye and the
judgment of unswerving Justice, which will determine their eternal
future.

In this age of general doubt, when human reason is exalted above
divine testimony, and the voice of faith is drowned by the clamors of
pretended science, the possibility and use of a resuscitation of the
body are scouted and denied. But "all things are possible to them that
believe," and the divinely illuminated mind can perceive not only the
use, but the necessity of the resurrection.

The being that was placed in Eden and endowed with power to wield
dominion over all created things, was a living soul, a sentient spirit
in an immortal body, a man fashioned in the image of God. He fell from
that condition and paid the penalty of death. Christ's atonement, as we
have seen restores him to his original condition. But this he cannot
have without his body again made immortal. By the workings of the grand
scheme of human exaltation, he and his posterity, with the benefits
of the lessons of experience, will be restored to the immortality and
pleasures of the primeval paradise, and placed on the path of eternal
progress.

And, mark this, a body framed out of the grosser elements is essential
to the perfect happiness and power of the refined spiritual organism
which possesses it as a tabernacle. The principle of affinities and of
the attraction and communion of similars proclaim this truth. Spirit
ministers to spirit. Things of a like nature cohere. The higher or
spiritual element reaches upward to the loftiest things; the lower or
fleshy element reaches downward, and the twain, inseparably combined
and governed by the laws of right and truth, draw pleasure and
delight from the heights and depth of the boundless universe and the
ever-extending spheres of eternal intelligence. A disembodied spirit is
imperfect, and requires clothing with its denser parts. Without them,
its affinities would lie in but one direction, and its joy and progress
would be limited.

The family condition too is formed in the embodied state. Death
separates the husband and wife, the parents and children. The
resurrection, in its highest conditions, reunites them and restores
all that was lost in the grave. Who can picture the bliss, the glory,
the power, the might, the dominion and majesty that shall grow out of
the redemption from the dead of the righteous man and his household,
dwelling in perfect harmony and peace with all the powers of their
being, spiritual and physical, purified, quickened, intensified and
enlarged to a fullness, with all eternity before them for the exercise
thereof in accordance with the designs of the Great Greater? It is
beyond the skill of man to depict it, and no mortal mind can comprehend
it without special divine illumination.

And who shall define the impossible, or draw the bounds of the powers
of the Creator? The secret of ordinary life is hidden from the scrutiny
of the most profound scientist. He knows not the mystery of the vital
principle that quickens even the lowest form of animated nature. His
own powers of mind and motion are incomprehensible to him. Their
origin and cause are beyond his ken, and he cannot solve the problem
any better than the ignorant Hottentot or the untutored Indian. The
reproduction of plants from their seeds, the evolving of life out of
the midst of their death, is a wonder unexplained. And shall we say
that it is impossible for the Power that regulates the universe to
reanimate a defunct body?

It must be remembered that nothing in nature is annihilated. No
particle of matter is destroyed by any process. What is called death
is but a change of form. All matter is not visible to the human eye.
A body may exist, but so transformed as to be imperceptible to the
natural vision. The forces that regulate the universe are occult, and
though some of the laws that govern them are known, there are others
that have not been discovered, and it is the height of presumption
for those who have obtained a smattering of information concerning
these things--and who has obtained more?--to declare that impossible
which they know nothing of, or to limit the power of that creative or
quickening energy, whose nature, capabilities and qualities they cannot
comprehend in the smallest degree.

If one dead body has been raised to life, unnumbered millions may
also be revived. That one we have in the person of Jesus of Nazareth,
and He is the forerunner of all the race. Let the sons and daughters
of men rejoice and give thanks to Him who has wrought out this great
redemption. Death is conquered. The grave has no terrors. Life and
immortality are brought to light. Eternity with all its prospects
and capabilities is open to the view. And through the power of the
resurrection vested in Christ Jesus, the whole globe shall deliver up
its dead, and the great progenitor of our race, Adam, the "Ancient of
Days," shall stand forth at the head of his posterity all quickened
and animated by the spirit of life; and while Jesus the Son is hailed
as the mighty Redeemer, God the Eternal Father shall be honored and
worshiped for ever as the Author of our being, from whom springs all
life, light, power and glory throughout the vast domains of universal
space!



ELEVENTH LEAF.

Man or Woman Alone Imperfect--Marriage Ordained of God--Sanctity of
Proper Sexual Relations--Matrimony a Part of Religion--The First Pair
Immortal--Marriage for Eternity--Keys of Celestial Marriage--Condition
of Those who Marry Only for Time--Man the Head of the Woman--Plurality
of Wires--Continuation of the Righteous Forever--Eternal Family
Organizations--Everlasting Increase and Dominion.

No man or woman, separate and single, can attain the fullness of
celestial glory. Perfection of being, happiness, exaltation or
dominion, is unattainable by either sex alone. The nature, desires,
capabilities and manifest design of both male and female humanity
proclaim this, and the voice of Deity has endorsed and sanctified the
utterance of nature. Woman was made for man. Marriage is ordained
of God. In its correct form it is under the divine direction. The
Father of the race has the right to a voice in the sexual unions of
His children. Those relations are fraught with so much consequence,
relating to time and eternity, that the Supreme Ruler should regulate
them for the benefit of the parties, the welfare of society and the
good of posterity in this world, as well as for eternal results in the
life to come.

The male and female elements of humanity seek union, of their own
volition. The natural attraction that prompts this is right and proper.
But if there were no rules and restrictions for the government of
these tendencies and the actions resultant, confusion would ensue,
and the effects would be sorrow, ruin and destruction. Matrimony
therefore becomes a part of religion. It is a divine institution, and
hence should be divinely directed. The first marriage on record was
solemnized by Deity. It was God who said, "It is not good that the man
should be alone." It was God who brought Eve and gave her to Adam.
It was God who commanded the twain made one flesh to "increase and
multiply."

Marriage, properly contracted, is therefore holy and pure, and its
relations, unabused, are sacred and chaste. The notion that celibacy
is purer than matrimony, that either man or woman is holier in the
sight of heaven because of nonintercourse with the other sex, is a
gross error, unwarranted by reason or revelation. There is no attribute
of the mind or function of the body that is in itself, or in its
legitimate exercise, impure or degrading. It is only the wrong use of
any of our powers that is sinful.

The first marriage recorded in scripture was the union of immortals.
The curse of death had not been pronounced when the ceremony was
solemnized. There was no sin then, and therefore there was no death.
The man and woman became ONE as eternal beings, and dominion was given
to them over all earthly things, together. Death and the rule of man
over the woman came as the consequences of transgression. The penalty
was paid, the redemption was wrought out, and through the atonement
those two persons are restored to their pristine condition.

In the resurrection, then, Adam and Eve come together as at the first
in the garden, and there is no more separation for them. They are
rejoined, not as ghostly beings without the feelings and powers of
tangible personality, but as the man and the woman made one eternally,
with power to increase and multiply and have dominion, with all
eternity before them for the exercise of every power with which the
Creator endowed them, spiritual, mental and physical, standing at the
head of the race, perfected by experience and obedience to eternal law,
and ready to act in the harmony with celestial intelligencies, and
preside over their own posterity forever.

Here is a sample marriage. It was not for time alone, but for eternity.
Death intervened, but only as an incident. The bond that bound them
in matrimony was not sundered. The seal set upon them was of heavenly
stamp. Its virtue reached within the vail. Its force extended into the
world to come. There was no end to it. God had a hand in it and it was
His seal and sanction that made it valid and everlasting. All other
marriages solemnized on similar principles and under the same authority
will be of the same virtue and effect. Ordinances performed by those
divinely appointed are as though attended to by Deity in person.
"Whoso receiveth you receiveth me," saith the Lord. What they "bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven." Herein is the authority of the holy
Priesthood, and herein is the sealing power for the Saints of God, by
which they may enter into the holy order of celestial marriage that
lasts while eternity endures. The KEYS of this power are only held by
one man at a time on the earth, being vested in the president of the
whole Church of God in the flesh. But while he holds the keys, others
may officiate therein under his direction and authority.

Unions formed by men and women, of their own arrangement without
any divine sanction or divine ceremony, are only temporary in their
nature. They end when the parties or either of them die. God does not
acknowledge that which He has not appointed. Neither the vows of the
man and woman, nor the ceremony performed by a person unauthorized by
the Almighty are recognized in heaven, but only pertain to earth and
time. The claim of parents thus united, over their offspring, is but
of the earth, earthy, and does not extend into the spheres beyond.
Death dissolves both these marital and parental ties, and each family
particle becomes disintegrated.

No power but that of Deity can bring them again together, and as God
proceeds by law, and the law fixed for these relations have not been
complied with, the separation continues while endless ages roll. "In
the resurrection _they_ neither marry, nor are given in marriage," but,
if in a saved condition, are as the angels, and they are ministering
spirits or servants unto those who obtain the crown of eternal lives,
"a far more and exceeding and eternal weight of glory," than that
which rests upon any of the angels. Men and women may be _saved_ in
a separate and single state, but they cannot be _exalted_ into the
fullness of celestial glory without union in celestial marriage,
because that is a state of perfection and comprehends the gift of
perpetual increase, in which there are endless dominion and the
exercise of all the powers of immortal manhood and womanhood united as
one in the everlasting covenant.

In the divine economy, as in nature, the man "is the head of the
woman," and it is written that "he is the savior of the body." But "the
man is not without the woman" any more than the woman is without the
man, in the Lord. Adam was first formed, then Eve. In the resurrection
they stand side by side and hold dominion together. Every man who
overcomes all things and is thereby entitled to inherit all things,
receives power to bring up his wife to join him in the possession and
enjoyment thereof.

In the case of a man marrying a wife in the everlasting covenant who
dies while he continues in the flesh and marries another by the same
divine law, each wife will come forth in her order and enter with him
into his glory. Is there any reason why this should not be so? Is not
each of these wives entitled to her position in eternity, by virtue of
the sealing power which made her part of the man? Why should one enter
into the exaltation of the celestial world, and the other be relegated
to singleness and servitude? They all become one in the patriarchal
order of family government. And if this be the case in heaven, why
should not similar conditions so far as possible exist on earth? Is
earth holier than heaven? If a man receives from the Lord more wives
than one under the sealing ordinances of celestial marriage, where is
the moral wrong? They belong to no other man, but are his by mutual
consent of all the interested parties, and they live together in the
marriage state, one as much as the other.

In this position there are occasions for the exercise of patience,
forbearance, charity, self-sacrifice and the exercise of all the
virtues to a far greater degree than in any other. In this plural
family relation, an experience can be gained that no other condition in
life affords, and the parties who so live and keep the law will be, in
the very nature of things, prepared for a wider sphere of dominion, and
power, and dignity, and might in the eternal world, than those who have
only experienced the monogamic condition. They will, therefore, if they
endure unto the end, go forward into the highest degree of exaltation,
while their posterity will multiply in an ever-increasing ratio, until
worlds will be filled by their generations and they will ascend to the
majesty and splendor of the Gods on high.

Herein is our Eternal Father glorified and His dominions extended.
By the continuation of the seeds of the righteous forever, the
multiplication of His sons and daughters creates the needs for worlds
and systems, to be brought forth according to eternal laws, to occupy
their position in the universe as dwelling places for spirits, and
embodied mortals, and perfected souls, in the various grades on the
path of progress towards the perfection of the celestial order; as orbs
of light and splendor, or globes of trial, punishment or correction,
each in its allotted sphere in the galaxy of suns and stars and
planets, and in the vast and wondrous plans of the Mighty Architect,
the Eternal Parent of organized intelligencies.

In obedience to His laws, there is present peace and future joy.
They who are in harmony with Him are in affinity with the source of
all pleasure and power. His commandments are found in the laws of
continuing life, which regulate as permanent things; and they who
reject Him and His counsels shut the gate against their own happiness
and advancement. But, for them who receive His gospel and conform to
all its ordinances and teachings, the door is open to the highest
courts in the heavenly mansions, and while they are helped through the
ordeals of mortal life, they gain the keys to all the glories of that
existence in which the family relation is perfected and perpetuated,
and every power of the whole being, refined, intensified and developed,
finds exercise, in its true sphere, to the complete and unalloyed bliss
of each one in the endless family circle, and the glory of Him who is
the Patriarch and Ruler of all.



TWELFTH LEAF.

Christ's Work Continued After His Death--The Perfect Science of
Human Redemption--What was Lost in the Fall--What is to be Regained
in the Restoration--Justice Tempered with Mercy--Loss Sustained
by the Disobedient--Doom of the Sons of Perdition--The Celestial,
Terrestrial and Telestial Glories--Redemption and Glorification
of the Earth--Salvation of the Whole Race--The Finished Work of
Christ--Universal Dominion of the Father.

The mission of Christ was to save that which was lost. It was not
completed when He hung upon the cross. His dying exclamation, "It
is finished!" referred to His sufferings for sin, the ordeals of
mortality, His labors in the flesh. As we have seen, He continued His
work of salvation when out of the body, by preaching to the dead. After
His resurrection He met, on several occasions, with His disciples,
and instructed them in the plan of redemption and sent them to all
nations, that the work He had commenced on earth might be continued.
He ministered to other nations, uttered His voice to other sheep which
were not of the fold in Palestine, that the lost tribes of Israel and
all who could not be reached by His Jewish Apostles might hear the glad
tidings of salvation. This, however, not fully revealed in the Bible,
is made clear in the Book of Mormon. After His ascension, to fulfill
His own promise, He went to prepare a place for His faithful disciples,
that when they left the earth they might be able to abide with Him.

But all this was only a small part of the perfect scheme of redemption.
That which was lost in Adam is to be regained in Christ. Through the
commission of crime, death came into the world. Satan gained dominion.
The earth trembled under the curse. Eden bloomed no more upon its face.
The tree of life was removed. Thorns and briers and noxious weeds came
up in the place of the flowers and fruits of paradise. Deity was hidden
from the sight of man. Sorrow and pain and toil and travail became the
heritage of mortals. Enmity arose between man and beast. Venom entered
the serpent's fangs, and rage the hearts of brute and fowl and aqueous
creature. Strife dwelt in the very elements and death brooded over the
face of the smitten globe.

What, then, was lost? The immortality of man; the blessed tree of
life; communion with Jehovah; the companionship of angels; the purity
of paradise; man's dominion over inferior creatures; freedom from
satanic influence; exemption from toil and pain; earth's affinity with
perfected realms on high.

Until all this has been restored, Christ's work must continue. The
earth must be cleansed from its corruptions. The elements must melt
with fervent heat, and be purified from evil. Satan and his hosts
must be banished and bound. Eden must blossom again as at first. The
lion and the lamb must lie down together. The fig tree and the myrtle
must flourish where the rank weeds grow. The whole race of Adam must
be raised from the dead. The vail between earth and heaven must be
removed. The knowledge and glory of God must cover the earth as the
waters cover the deep, and the spirit of life and peace and light
and joy must be poured out upon all flesh, until the whole creation
vibrates with pleasure and responds with praise.

The ushering in of the great millennial day, a glimpse of which
has been seen by all the holy prophets since the world began, with
the sweet rest of earth and its inhabitants, is not, however, the
completion of Christ's glorious work. His kingdom must not only be
established from pole to pole and from shore to shore, but His saving
power must penetrate to every lost soul of our race in, the regions of
the damned.

A just judgment will be meted out to all. They who reject the gospel
must suffer the penalty. Those who are found worthy of many stripes
must receive their portion. The wicked will be turned into hell, with
all the nations that forget God. Each condemned person will pay the
uttermost farthing for his sins. Justice, tempered, not warped or
thwarted, by mercy, will mete out to all their right deserts, "every
man according to His works." The punishment is always existent,
therefore it is eternal punishment. But each one who suffers,
receives only his just portion thereof. Shall the murderer and the
Sabbath-breaker, the adulterer and the thief, the drunkard and the
profane, all merit the same doom? Would human courts proclaim such
judgment? Shall man have more equity than God? When stern justice has
claimed its own and filled its purpose, shall there be no place for
sweet mercy?

While there is one soul of this race, willing and able to accept and
obey the laws of redemption, no matter where or in what condition it
may be found, Christ's work will be incomplete until that being is
brought up from death and hell, and placed in a position of progress,
upward and onward, in such glory as is possible for its enjoyment and
the service of the great God.

The punishment inflicted will be adequate to the wrongs performed. In
one sense the sinner will always suffer its effects. When the debt is
paid and justice is satisfied; when obedience is learned through the
lessons of sad experience; when the grateful and subdued soul comes
forth from the everlasting punishment, thoroughly willing to comply
with the laws once rejected; there will be an abiding sense of loss.
The fullness of celestial glory in the presence and society of God and
the Lamb are beyond the reach of that saved but not perfected soul,
forever. The power of increase, wherein is dominion and exaltation, and
crowns of immeasurable glory, is not for the class of beings who have
been thrust down to hell and endured the wrath of God for the period
allotted by eternal judgment.

But Jesus, the anointed, with His army of saviors bearing the
Priesthood after the order of Melchisedec, will seek and save that
which is lost until everything salvable is redeemed. Only those beings
who have learned the law, received of the light of truth, tasted the
sweets of the divine spirit, basked in the sunbeams of the heavenly
glory, made covenant to serve the King of kings and received power
to advance to the pinnacle, of exaltation, and then have turned away
from the right, chosen evil rather than good, driven away the power
and promptings of the Spirit of light and truth, sought to become a
law unto themselves, imbrued their hands in the blood of innocence
or, drinking in of the influence of that evil one, consented to and
endorsed the slaying of the world's Redeemer, thus sinning against
the Holy Ghost and becoming servants of Satan and sons of perdition,
will be in their nature and status unredeemable, and therefore will
remain "filthy still" and thus be unfit for a kingdom of any degree of
glory. Those will go away with the devil and his angels into the outer
darkness, beyond the spheres where flows the river of salvation and
where blooms the tree of life. For them alone of Adam's race there is
no repentance, for them alone is the second death, for them alone is
the blackness of darkness forever.

When the work of Christ and His associate kings and priests unto God
is finished, the saints of all the ages will be crowned with glory and
receive their reward. They will be made rulers over many things. In the
order of eternity, they will stand in the heavenly family organization,
and all things will be theirs. Of their increase there will be no end.
They will hold the key to all heights and depths. They will have power
over all the elements, spiritual and corporeal. The incorruptible and
fadeless riches will be theirs. They will mingle with the highest. They
will gaze upon the face of the Eternal God and dwell in the presence of
the sinless Son. Pain and sorrow, and trial and death will henceforth
be only known in memory, to form the contrast needful to make their joy
complete. Eternity with its boundless opportunities and unutterable
bliss and intelligence and majesty will be before them without a
barrier in the way, secure for them as to the Almighty Father himself.
This is the celestial glory.

Those who were not numbered with the Saints of God in the flesh, but
who received the gospel in the spirit; the good and honorable who were
led astray by the designing; the class not fitted for the crowning
glory of the celestial world nor worthy of the doom of the wicked,
will also receive their portion. They will not attain to the gifts of
increase and dominion and the fullness of the highest, but will enter
into their rest, which shall be glorious. And though they reach not
to the Father's fullness, they will receive the visits of the Son and
of His associates in the celestial world, and enjoy rich blessings
unspeakable in their greatness and perpetuity. They inherit the
terrestrial glory.

Those who were cast down to the depths for their sins, who rejected the
gospel of Jesus, who persecuted the saints, who reveled in iniquity,
who committed all manner of transgressions except the unpardonable
crime, will also come forth in the Lord's time, through the blood of
the Lamb and the ministry of His disciples and their own repentance and
willing acceptance of divine law, and enter into the various degrees of
glory and power and progress and light, according to their different
capacities and adaptabilities. They cannot go up into the society
of the Father nor receive of the presence of the Son, but will have
ministrations of messengers from the terrestrial world, and have joy
beyond all expectation and the conception of uninspired mortal minds.
They will all bow the knee to Christ and serve God the Father, and have
an eternity of usefulness and happiness in harmony with the higher
powers. They receive the telestial glory.

Thus the inhabitants of earth, with the few exceptions that are beyond
the power of redemption, will eventually be saved. And the globe
on which they passed their probation, having kept the law of its
being, will come into remembrance before its Maker. It will die like
its products. But it will be quickened again and resurrected in the
celestial glory. It has been born of the water, it will also be born of
the Spirit. Purified by fire from all the corruptions that once defiled
it, developed into its perfections as one of the family of worlds
fitted for the Creator's presence, all its latent light awakened into
scintillating action, it will move up into its place among the orbs
governed by celestial time, and shining "like a sea of glass mingled
with fire," every tint and color of the heavenly bow radiating from
its surface, the ransomed of the Lord will dwell upon it; the highest
beings of the ancient orbs will visit it; the garden of God will again
adorn it; the heavenly government will prevail in every part; Jesus
will reign as its King; the river of life will flow out from the regal
throne; the tree of life, whose leaves were for the healing of the
nations, will flourish upon the banks of the heavenly stream, and its
golden fruit will be free for the white-robed throng, that they may eat
and live forever. This perfected earth and its saved inhabitants will
then be presented to the Eternal Father as the finished work of Christ,
and all things will be subject unto the Great Patriarch, Architect,
Creator, Ruler, the Almighty, to whom be obedience and reverence
and praise in all the countless worlds that shine as jewels in His
universal crown!



THE LATTER-DAY KINGDOM.

  How shall I sing thy beauty, pow'r and light,
    O glorious kingdom of the latter days!
  I see thy loveliness, I feel thy might,
    But find no utterance to speak thy praise!

  I search in vain the records of the past,
    Which paint dead kingdoms in their short-lived pride,
  They cannot picture thee, whose pow'r shall last
    While heav'n and truth and Deity abide.

  And shall the little "powers that be" to-day,
    Be likened for a moment to thy majesty?
  As well declare pale vesta's twinkling ray
    Unfolds the splendor of eternity.

  In hist'ry only Egypt's greatness lives--
    Lost are its treasures, all its wisdom hid,
  Except the scraps the crumbling mummy gives,
    The sculptured sphynx and tow'ring pyramid.

  Assyria! Thy sceptre lies in dust.
    Thy bow is broken and thy pomp has fled.
  Perished thy fruits of conquest, blood and lust,
    With all the warriors that Tiglath led!

  Where are the palaces of Babylon,
    The "hanging gardens" and the golden tow'rs?
  With the Chaldeans' starlight wisdom gone,
    Walls, gates and glory, images and flow'rs!

  And couldst not thou, Greece, avert thy fate,
    With oracles and wealth and victory?
  Couldst not thy world-wide reign perpetuate,
    With all thy gods and deep philosophy?

  The soul that moved thee in thy conquering march,
    That spoke in poesy and art and grace,
  Is disembodied; and the mouldering arch
    And chiseled fragment mark thy burial place.

  And thou, O Rome! proud mistress of the world!
    Thine armored legions spread no terror now.
  They bring no blood-bought spoils of gems impearled,
    To deck thy bosom and thy haughty brow.

  Thy Coliseum's vast and vacant walls,
    Rot as an emblem of thy great decay,
  And on the ear its mournful echo falls,
    A dismal knell of thy departed sway!

  O! all ye living governments and states!
    Gaze on the relics of far mightier powers!
  The hand that shattered them, uplifted waits
    The bell that ends your few remaining hours!

  In the high chambers of the West, I see
    An infant kingdom struggling to the birth.
  And the prophetic spirit says to me,
    "In manhood this shall govern all the earth."

  O Zion! built by Saints of latter days.
    Bring forth the promised kingdom to the world!
  Upon the mountain tops "the ensign" raise,
    And spread its shining folds to all the world!

  Gathered from ev'ry clime and tongue and race,
    Under the banner, righteous men shall stand,
  And the all-conquering Christ shall show His face,
    And give dominion to that faithful band.

  Armored in truth and God's authority,
    Dauntless and terrible, yet full of love,
  The King shall lead them unto victory,
    And bring a van-guard from the ranks above.

  No weapon formed against them shall prevail,
    No cunning plan shall prove their overthrow;
  The prince of all earth's kingdoms they assail,
    And drive his forces to the shades below.

  The spirit that gives wisdom to the wise,
    Prom Council, Congress, Parliament, shall flee--
  Shall rest on those whom all mankind despise,
    And leave the world to human policy.

  Left, in a day of storms, each bark of state,
    Rotten and rudderless, whirled madly on
  Against each other on the sea of fate,
    With awful crash to depths of death go down.

  But see the ship no storm can overwhelm,
    Saving the remnants of the wrecks below!
  "The Priesthood" 's written on her shining helm,
    "God's Kingdom" is inscribed upon her bow.

  God's Kingdom! seen in vision by the seers!
    God's Kingdom! Clothed in justice truth and light!
  Theme of the prophet and the bard appears,
    To save the nations from chaotic night.

  A perfect government for all the earth.
    Not a republic nor a monarchy,
  And yet from both all principles of worth
    Are blended in this great Theocracy.

  Wielding almighty power in ev'ry land,
    The willing people bend to its supreme decrees,
  And mutual int'rest, like a golden band,
    Binds in one social compact men of all degrees.

  Appointed by the great Jehovah's voice,
    By intellect and virtue qualified,
  And a free people's universal choice,
    The leading spirits govern and preside.

  No longer bound beneath the cruel weight
    Of idle vampires, draining their life's blood,
  The joyful nations yield the pow'r of state,
    To legislators for their country's good.

  Earth's treasures, hiding 'neath the deep sea waves,
    Bound in the rock, or shining on the strand,
  Or glittering in subterraneous caves,
    Come sparkling forth at industry's command.

  New sciences and arts diffuse new light,
    Knowledge of future and of past events,
  Wisdom to comprehend the secret might,
    And subtle forces of the elements.

  In wondrous implements, mechanic skill
    Gives unto labor swift and easy wings,
  Making each sterile spot with life to thrill,
    While water from the thirsty desert springs.

  Thought, freed from human trammels, brings to light
    Its glorious conceptions without fear,
  And mouldy Precedent, struck dead with fright,
    Reposes on an unregretted bier.

  The laws which life and health perpetuate,
    By inspiration's sacred voice are taught,
  And every passion made subordinate,
    To principles with lasting pleasure fraught.

  Jesus, the Sinless, fills the regal throne,
    To Him all other rulers bend the knee;
  He reigns not by His right and might alone,
    But loving homage swells His majesty.

  Earth linked into the chain of worlds on high,
    Among the ransomed planets takes its place,
  And finds itself in blest affinity
    With orbs that govern time through boundless space.

  Such is the kingdom now on earth begun,
    A branch of the great Governmental Tree,
  Whose roots are grounded in the central sun,
    Whose boughs bear fruit through all eternity.

  Happy are they who labor in its cause,
    Happy are they who suffer for its sake;
  For all who are obedient to its laws,
    Of all its joys and honors shall partake.



APPENDIX

  Scripture references in proof of the doctrines set
  forth in the body of this work.

  FIRST LEAF.

  But one God to worship--I. Cor. viii, 6.
  Man's ways not accepted of God--Matt. xv, 9.
  Only one correct way--John x, 1.
  Faith the first principle--Heb. xi, 6.
  Faith a principle of power--Heb. x.
  How faith comes--Rom. x, 14, 17.
  Human learning inadequate--I. Cor. ii, 5-14.
  God the Father of spirits--Heb. xii, 9; Eccles. xii, 7; John xx, 17.
  Man in God's image--Gen. i, 26; I. Cor. xi, 7.

  SECOND LEAF.

  Death by Adam, life by Christ--Rom. x, 12-21
  All, good and bad, to be raised from the dead--I. Cor. xv, 22;
       John v, 28, 29; Daniel xii, 2.
  Christ died for original sin--John i, 29; Rom. v, 18, 19; I.
       Cor. xv. 21, 22.
  Christ died for our actual sins--Rom. iv, 25: v, 8; viii, 32;
       I. Cor. xv. 3; Galatians i, 4; Ephesians, i, 7: Collossians,
       i, 14; Heb. ii, 9; ix, 28; I. Peter ii, 24; iii, 18;
       I. John ii, 2.
  Faith repentance and baptism fundamental principles--Heb.
       vi, 1, 2; Matthew xxviii, 19, 20;
  True repentance--II. Cor. viii, 10, 11.
  Baptism is immersion--Rom. vi, 4; Acts viii, 38, 39; Mark i, 4.
  But one baptism--Ephesians iv, 5.
  But one door into the fold--John x. 1, 2.

  THIRD LEAF.

  Gift of the Holy Ghost by laying on of hands--Acts viii,
       14-19; xix, 6; II. Timothy i, 6: Deut. xxxiv. 9.
  Office of the Holy Ghost--John xiv, 26; xvi, 13.
  Fruits of the Spirit-Gal. v, 22, 23.
  Birth of the Spirit essential--John iii, 3-5.

  FOURTH LEAF.

  No man to take the Priesthood upon himself--Heb. v, 1-4.
  What is sealed on earth by authority is sealed in heaven--
       Matt. xviii, 18; xvi 19.
  The Melchisedek Priesthood eternal--Heb. v, 5.
  The Aaronic or Levitical Priesthood another order, Heb. vii,
       11, 21.
  Jesus did not assume the Priesthood--Heb. v, 5.
  God called Jesus to the Priesthood--Jeb. v, 10; Psalms cx, 4.
  Moses and Elias administered to Jesus--Matt. xvii, 1-5;
       Mark ix, 2-7, Luke ix, 30-35.
  Jesus ordained apostles to the same authority--John xx,
       21-23; xvii, 22; xv, 16.
  The Apostles ordained others--Acts i, 23-26; vi, 6; xiii,
       1-3; xiv, 23; xv, 22; I. Timothy iv, 134; Titus i, 5.

  FIFTH LEAF.

  Christ the head of the Church--Ephesians v, 23: i, 22.
  Apostleship first authority in the Church--I. Cor. xii. 28;
       Ephesians ii, 20.
  Peter, James, and John chief Apostles--Galatians ii, 9.
  Seventies called and sent forth--x, 1.
  Officers of the Church--I. Cor. xii, 28: Eph. iv, 11; I.
       Timothy iii, 1-13; v, 1.
  Apostles and Prophets to continue--Eph. iv, 13.
  Progress of the Church towards perfection--Eph. iv, 12-16;
       v, 27.
  Church casts out evil doers--II Thess. iii, 6-14; Rom. xvi,
       17; I. Cor. v, 4-11; II. Cor vi, 14-17; Matt. xviii, 17.
  Members of the Church all one; no nationality--I, Cor. xii, 13;
       Galatians iii, 28; Rom. x, 12; Ephesians ii, 19-22.
  Church of the present connected with the past--Heb. xii,
       22, 23.

  SIXTH LEAF

  God not the author of confusion--I. Cor. xiii, 33.
  Contention among the early Saints--I. Cor. i, 11.
  Great apostasy foretold--II. Thess. ii, 2, 3; I. Tim. iv, 1; II.
       Tim. iii, 1-7; II. Peter ii, 1-3; Revelations xiv, 8.
  The iniquity commenced in the first century--II. Thess. ii, 7;
       Rev. ii, 3.
  Christ's pure Church symbolized--Rev. xii, 1-5.
  The apostate church contrasted--Rev. xvii, 1-6.
  Darkness covered the earth--Isaiah lx, 2.
  Spirit of the deep sleep poured out--Isaiah xxix, 9, 10.
  The world worshipping God only with their mouth--Isaiah
       xxix, 13.

  SEVENTH LEAF.

  Restoration of the gospel by an angel--Rev. xiv, 6, 7.
  Knowledge to follow obedience--John vii, 17.
  John the Baptist could not confer the Holy Ghost--Matt. iii,
       11; Acts xix, 2-4.
  Powers of the Aaronic Priesthood--Doctrine and Covenants
       Section cvii, 20.
  Powers of the Melchisedek Priesthood--Doc. and Cov. Sec.
       cvii, 18, 19; Heb. v, ix.
  Signs to follow believers--Mark xvi, 17, 18; I. Cor. xii, 7-11.
  Dispensation of the fullness of times--Eph. i, 9, 10.

  EIGHTH LEAF.

  No salvation but by Jesus Christ--Acts. iv, 12.
  Birth of water and of spirit essential--John iii, 5.
  All to be judged by the gospel--Rom. ii, 16.
  Gospel preached to the dead--I. Peter iv, 6.
  Christ preached to the spirits in prison--I. Peter iii, 18-20
  Preaching to captives foretold--Isaiah lxi, 1: xlii, 6, 7.
  Jesus led captivity captive--Eph. iv, 8.
  Jesus did not go to heaven when He died--John xx, 17;
       Luke xxiii, 43.
  Living and dead to hear the gospel--Rom. x, 14; Isaiah xxiv,
       21, 22.

  NINTH LEAF.

  Baptism for the dead--I. Cor. xv, 29.
  The fathers without us not perfect--Heb. xi, 39, 40.
  Saviors on Mount Zion--Obadiah i, 21.
  Order of baptism for the dead--Doc. and Cov. Sections cxxvii,
       cxviii.
  Elijah the Prophet to come--Malachi iv, 5.
  Christ the proxy of blood for all--Heb. ix, 12, 14, 22; x, 10;
       I. Tim. ii, 6.
  Knowledge about the dead to some from God--Isaiah viii,
       19, 20.

  TENTH LEAF.

  Sin the transgression of law--I. John iii, 14.
  Death the wages of sin--Rom. vi, 23.
  All men to die--Heb. ix, 27; Eccles. iii, 20.
  Death inherited from Adam--Rom. v, 12.
  Life after death--II. Cor. vi; Eccles. xii, 7.
  Resurrection of the body--Job xix, 25-27; Isaiah xxvi, 19;
       Luke xxiv, 26-42; I. Cor. xv, 35-54; Phil. iii, 20, 21.
  First resurrection--Rev. xx, 4-6.
  Three glories-I. Cor. xv, 15.
  A body necessary for full happiness--Ezekiel xxxvii, 2; Doc.
       and Cov. Sec. xciii, 23, 24.
  The Ancient of Days--Daniel vii, 9-14.

  ELEVENTH LEAF.

  Woman made for man--I. Cor. xi, 9.
  Marriage ordained of God--Gen. ii, 22-24; i, 28.
  Marriage honorable--Heb. xiii, 4.
  Man the head of the woman--Eph. v, 23; I. Cor. xi, 3.
  Man not without the woman in the Lord--I. Cor. xi, 11.
  Unmarried persons as the angels--Matt. xxii, 30.
  Saints to judge angels--I. Cor. vi, 3.
  Angels to be ministering Spirits--Heb. i, 14.
  God gave David wives--Judges viii, 30.
  Jacob's four wives--Gen. xxx, 1-26
  Abraham and his wives--Gen. xviii, 16-19; xvi, 1-3; xxv,
       1-6
  Abraham and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven--Matt. viii,
       11, 12; Luke xiii, 28.
  Celestial marriage--Doc. and Cov. Sec. cxxxii.

  TWELFTH LEAF.

  Christ came to save that which was lost--Matt. xviii, 11.
  Christ ministered to His disciples after His resurrection--Acts
       i, 3-8; I. Cor. xv, 5-8.
  Other sheep besides the fold at Jerusalem--John x, 16.
  Christ prepared a place for His disciples--John xiv, 2, 3.
  Earth to be cleansed from corruption--Isaiah xxiv, 1-6; Malachi
       iv, 1-3; II. Peter iii, 10-12.
  Satan to be bound--Rev. xx, 1-3.
  Restoration--Isaiah xi, 6-9; lxv, 17-25.
  All to be judged according to their works--Rev. xx, 12-15;
       Matt. xvi. 27.
  Some beaten with few, some with many stripes--Luke xii,
       47-48.
  Pay the uttermost farthing--Matt. v, 26.
  The unpardonable sin--Mark iii, 28, 29; i. John v, 16.
  The second death--Rev. xxi. 8; xix, 20.
  Remain filthy still--Rev. xxii, 11.
  The future of mankind--Doc. and Cov. Section lxxvi.
  Every knee shall bow--Philippians ii, 10.
  Earth to be made new--II. Peter iii, 13; Rev. xxi. 1.
  Sea of glass mingled with first--Rev. xv. 2.
  The righteous to inherit all things--Rev. xxi, 7.
  The river of life--Rev. xxii, 1; Ezekiel xlvii, 1.
  Leaves of the the tree of life--Rev. xxii, 2.
  All things become subject to God--I. Cor. xv. 24-28.





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