Scrap Book of Mormon Literature, Volume 2 (of 2). Religious Tracts
Religion
Scrap Book of Mormon Literature, Volume 2 (of 2). Religious Tracts
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saints
This, I think, is a very liberal Gospel. But we do not claim credit for
it, my friends. This was not invented by the boy Prophet Joseph Smith,
who was proclaimed an ignoramus, a fool, an idiot, a knave. No, he did
not invent this beautiful doctrine that I have been briefly proclaiming
this afternoon. It was revealed from on high. It came by the voice of
God from the eternal heavens. It is too good for a man to originate.
It is Godlike; it is Christlike; it is broad, beautiful, and grand. It
reaches the whole of the human race, from Adam, our father, down to the
last person born on this globe. The heathen, the "Christian," the Jew,
the pagan, the Mohamedan, the infidel, the skeptic, the agnostic, all
people, all races, all tongues, all tribes--all shall hear the Gospel.
Every ear shall tingle with the sound thereof. Some may say, how can
an ear tingle in the spirit? My friends, perhaps you do not know much
about these things that are {74} called spiritual. The spirit of man is
an entity, a personality, a substance. It is not a mere myth, a breath.
True, it is a more refined substance than that which composes our body,
so much so that we cannot comprehend it in our present condition.
But when the spirit goes out of the body it is an individual, in the
same shape and form as the body, because the body is conformed to the
spirit. Sometimes the spirit is temporarily conformed to the body in
deformed persons; but these are exceptional cases. The spirit of man
is a son of God, made in His image and likeness. Jesus was the express
likeness of the Father, and we are His brothers and sisters. He is the
oldest, "the beginning of the creation of God," "the first born of
every creature" in the spirit, and "the only begotten" in the flesh.
When the spirit leaves the body, there is an individual, capable of
progress, capable of hearing, capable of receiving or rejecting, an
individual with agency, with power to do good and power to do evil.
And these spirits will be gathered together in classes. Each spirit,
when it leaves the body, will gravitate to its proper place, just as
naturally as things gravitate on this globe towards the center thereof.
It will be so in the spiritual world; for earthly things are after
the pattern of heavenly things. Thus each individual will have an
opportunity, at some time, of hearing and receiving the truth. And,
thank God, we have the assurance that the time will come when the great
mass of the human family will cheerfully bow the knee to the Great
Eternal Father and accept Jesus Christ, the Elder Brother, as their
Redeemer. They will receive the Gospel in the spirit, if they did not
in the flesh; and then they will be judged according to their works.
The Father will find a place for them all, somewhere in His great
universe, where they can be happy, where they can fill the measure of
their creation, where they can progress forever, learn more and more,
become better, brighter and more glorious, and unite with Him in His
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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