_SPECIAL TEXT: "If two things exist, and there be one above the other, there shall be greater things above them. * * * * Now, if there be two things, one above the other, and the moon be above the earth, then it may be that a planet or a star may exist above it; * * * * as also if there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the other, yet those two spirits notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal. * * * * These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than them all."_--THE LORD TO ABRAHAM. _NOTES._ 1. _The Book of Abraham:_ The Book of Abraham, no less than the Book of Moses, is immensely rich in doctrine and historical incident. Of the latter the fact of the large influence (if not identity) of Egyptian religious ideas in Chaldea in the days of Abraham; the descent of the cursed or black race from Cain, the first murderer; their preservation through the flood by the wife of Ham--"Egyptus, which in the Chaldean signifies 'Egypt,' which signifies that which is forbidden," implying that Ham had married into that race which was forbidden to the "sons of God," and were cursed as pertaining to the Priesthood; the origin also of the Egyptians--these things constitute the chief historical items that are contributed by the book. As to doctrines, perhaps the most important are the pre-existence of spirits, and the eternal existence, yet varying grades of intelligences, (chap. iii); the choice of the more noble spirits as God's rulers in the earth (Ibid); the purpose of the earth life of these eternal intelligences, viz., to be "added upon," which means growth, increase of knowledge through experience, enlarged wisdom, broader intelligence, increased power and glory, Moses' "tasting the bitter that they may know how to prize the good" (Book of Moses, chap. vi:55); and the plurality of Gods implied in the fact that in his creation story Abraham uses the plural form throughout in reference to the divine Beings engaged in the work of creation--"And the Gods said let there be light,"--and the Gods called the light day," etc. We might claim for this book also the revelation of scientific truth in the Abrahamic system of astronomy, but that is too large a subject for treatment in a note; and therefore the student is referred to the very excellent work of Elder Geo. Reynolds, "The Book of Abraham: Its Authenticity Established as a Divine and Ancient Record." And also New Witnesses for God, Vol. I, chapters xxviii, xxix, and xxx. It should be said that it is more than sixty years since the Abrahamic system was first announced by the Prophet; and it is interesting to note the fact that though the heavens have been constantly searched by