OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SALVATION AND DAMNATION: Salvation and damnation meant, as to the former, the attainment of heaven; as to the latter, assignment to hell. The former, judging from the descriptions of it, a mysterious, indefinite state "enjoyed" somewhere "beyond the bounds of time and space * * * the saints secure abode;" the latter, a very definite place, with very definite and very hot conditions, that had power to endure and that everlastingly, to the eternal misery of the damned. Time might come and time might go, but this torture, undiminished, went on forever. If one gained heaven, even by ever so small a margin, he entered upon a complete possession of all its unutterable joys, equally with the angels and the holiest of saints. If he missed heaven, even by ever so narrow a margin, he was doomed to everlasting torment equally with the wickedest of men and vilest of devils, and there was no deliverance for him. These were some of the prevailing ideas, of the philosophy and the religion of men at the birth of the Prophet. A philosophy inadequate for any reasonable accounting for the universe. A religion that was derogatory to God and debasing to man--errors of both philosophy and religion that it was, I believe, the mission of our Prophet to correct. Let us follow him as he proceeds with his corrections, his setting over against every error above enumerated the truth received of God. V. THE PROPHET'S CORRECTION OF SECTARIAN ERRORS. THE DOCTRINE OF REVELATION: Against the sectarian dogma of the cessation of revelation, Joseph Smith proclaimed the reopening of the heavens. Against the doctrine that angels would no more visit the earth, he asserted the visitation of angels to him, revealing the existence of the Book of Mormon, a new volume of Scripture. Other angels brought to the Prophet the keys of authority and power held by them in former dispensations. So came John the Baptist with the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood; Peter, James and John, with the keys of the Melchisedek Priesthood; Moses, with the keys of the gathering of Israel, and so following. Against the doctrine of a closed volume of Scripture, Joseph Smith asserted the existence of, and the truth of the American volume of Scripture, the Book of Mormon. Against this whole narrow, bigoted idea of revelation held by the Christian world, he proclaimed a larger view. Instead of holding that a few prophets among the Hebrews had been visited of God and received divine inspiration he represented God as saying: