[Footnote G: A planet near the residence of God.--Book of Abraham, Pearl of Great Price, p. 30.] IV. I think it must be evident to all who have looked upon the dead, that man is a dual being. Who that has stood by the bier of a friend, a parent, child or wife, and looked upon the lifeless form stretched upon it, but has felt that the being he loved has departed, that he is looking upon the casket merely that contained the jewel--the spirit. This truth forced upon man's consciousness in the presence of the dead is also sustained by the word of God, in which it is said--speaking of that mysterious change to which all flesh is subject, and which man calls death--"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return to God who gave it."[A] [Footnote A: Ecclesiastes xii: 7] It is my purpose to show in this writing, that this spirit of man existed before it was united with the body, that it is an emanation from Deity, and hence the relationship of Fatherhood on the part of God, and sonship on the part of man. It is written by the Apostle Paul that, "God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers, by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, _by whom also he made the worlds_."[B] The palpable meaning of this passage is that God employed the spirit of Jesus Christ in creating worlds--not one world only, but doubtless many. And if it was the spirit of Jesus which acted as God's agent in the creation of the worlds, there can be no doubt as to the spirit of Jesus having an existence before it was tabernacled in the body born of the virgin Mary. [Footnote B: Hebrews i: 1, 2.] Nor is the above passage of scripture the only one which sustains the fact of the existence of the spirit of Jesus Christ previous to its union with the body. There are many expressions which fell from the lips of our Lord himself that prove the fact. When some of his disciples murmured at certain doctrines he had been teaching them, he exclaims--"Doth this offend you? what and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?"[C]--doubtless referring to the place he occupied in the mansions of his Father before the creation of the earth. [Footnote C: John vi: 61, 62.] Again, just previous to his betrayal, in his prayer in Gethsemane, he said to his Father, "I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, even with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."[D] No more direct allusion to his pre-existence could be given than this; and from it we learn that such existence extended back to a period previous to the creation of the earth we inhabit. [Footnote D: John, xvii.]