Mormonism rests not upon human reason as its first great source, but upon divine revelation. It is not a system of _philosophy_, therefore, but a system of _religion_; for Professor Köstlin says: "Without revelation there can be no religion; and it is a fact which should not be overlooked that even those who, on account of their idea of God, absolutely reject the idea of a direct, divine revelation, recognizing nothing but Nature in her material existence and mechanical working, cannot help applying to Nature expressions and conceptions which tend to raise her above the dumb necessity, and constitute her a higher being, capable of moral relations; nor can they for a longer period escape a feeling of thirst after revelations of the secret depths of that being, which they then strive to attain by ways more or less mystical and magical." (Schaff-Herzog's "Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge," Vol. III., page 2021.) And in accordance with that statement, the editor of the _Independent_, in an editorial note published April 8th, 1886, says: "The history of this world shows that in respect to the subject of religion, the supernatural is to human thought and feeling really the natural. We search that history in vain for a religious system that has stamped itself upon the faith and practice of men, operating upon them as a controlling power of comfort and hope, and organizing itself into their personal and social life by forms, usages, and modes of worship, and at the same time professedly based on the discoveries and authority of unaided human reason. Philosophies in abundance have been the products of such reason, but religious systems never. All the idolatries of antiquity claimed to be supernatural, and the same is true of all the forms of modern heathenism. Such is the assumed character of Mohammedanism and Mormonism.... The world never has had, and, judging by the past, never will have a religious system without this element. It does not want, and will not accept, a religion that claims for itself no higher basis than that of mere reason." "_Thus saith the Lord_" is the one claim of all the religious systems of the world. Accordingly we find that the adherents of all the great religions have their sacred books, which they venerate as revelations from heaven, from whence they claim their doctrines have emanated. The Brahmin has his Vedas; the Buddhist has his Tripitaka; the Zoroastrian has his Avesta; the Jew has the Law and the Prophets; the Christian has the Old and New Testaments; the Mohammedan has the Koran. In like manner, the Mormon has the "_Book of Mormon_." But the Book of Mormon is not the only inspired book of the Latter-Day Saints. They adopt the Bible, the "Book of Mormon," and the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," as their inspired Scriptures; and these are the sources of their doctrines.