issuing from the fountain of truth, prompted by infinite benevolence and charity, re-echoing amid the starry worlds, reaching down to earth, vibrating, with a thrill of joy, all the myriads of animated nature, penetrating the gloomy vaults of death, and the prisons of the spirit world, with a ray of hope, and causing to spring afresh, the well-springs of life, and joy, and love, even in the lonely dungeons of despair! O! how would their bosoms have reverberated with unutterable joy and triumph, in view of changing worlds. Could the rulers of this world have beheld, or even formed a conception of, such riches, such nobility, such an eternal and exceeding weight of glory, they would have accounted the wealth, pleasures, honours, titles, dignities, glories, thrones, principalities and crowns of this world as mere toys--the play-things of a day, dross, not worth the strife and toil of acquiring, or the trouble of maintaining, except as a duty, or troublesome responsibility. With this view of the subject, what man so base, so grovelling, so blind to his own interests, as to neglect those duties, self-denials, sacrifices, which are necessary in order to secure a part in the _first_ resurrection, and a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory in that life which never ends? CHAPTER VIII. KEY OF KNOWLEDGE, POWER, AND GOVERNMENT. Heaven's Nobility, whom worlds obey, Clad in the brightness of eternal day, Enthroned in majesty, as "_Priests and Kings_," To whom the universe its incense brings! Angels, its ministers! Heaven is its throne! The stores of infinitude are all its own! Having given a general view of the powers, operations and effects of Theology, as developed amongst the nations of antiquity, the mysteries of the Godhead, the law of nature, and the origin and destiny of the universe, the subject next in order is the KEY of knowledge, power and government, as developed in the heavens and on the earth, for the organization, order, peace, happiness, education, improvement, and exaltation of intelligences in the image of God--His sons and daughters. The great family of man, comprising the inhabitants of unnumbered millions of worlds, in every variety and degree of progress, consists of five principal spheres, or grand divisions, in the scale of progressive being, viz.-- First. _The Gods_, composed of embodied spirits, who inhabit tabernacles of immortal flesh and bones in their most refined state, and who are perfected in all the attributes of intelligence and power. Second. _The Angels_, who are also composed of spirits and immortal flesh and bones, less refined, and endowed with vast intelligence and power, but not a fulness. Third. _Embodied Spirits_, without a tabernacle of flesh and bones. These are they who hate passed the veil of death, and are awaiting a resurrection. Fourth. _Embodied Spirits_, with mortal tabernacles, as in the present world.