The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fourth Year: The AtonementRoberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fourth Year: The Atonement
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
At will, I leave all this and stand alone on mountain tops in Syria,
India, or overlooking old Nile's valley, wrapped in the awful grandeur
of solemn silence. Here I may bid fallen empires rise and pass in
grand procession before my mental vision and live again their little
lives; fight once more their battles; begin again each petty struggle
for place, for power, for control of the world's affairs; revive their
customs; live again their loves and hates, and preach once more their
religions and their philosophies--all this the mind may do, and that
as easily and as quickly as in thought it may leave this room, cross
the street to a neighbor's home, and there take note of the familiar
objects within his habitation.[A]
[Footnote A: "Mormon Doctrine of Deity," p. 132.]
_6. Ratiocination:_[A] "The mind (Intelligence) can combine
various general principles or individual facts and principles; and in
the combination and comparison of them, it can perceive other facts and
principles.[B] In other words, Intelligence is capable of reasoning;
of building up conclusions from the data of its knowledge. It has the
power of deliberation and of judgment; by which it may determine that
this state or condition is better than another state or condition. That
this, tending to good, should be encouraged; and that, tending to evil,
should be discouraged, or, if possible, destroyed.
[Footnote A: The process of deducing conclusions from premises.]
[Footnote B: "The Truth of Thought," p. 40.]
_7. Power of Volition:_ Intelligence, as embodied in man, is also
conscious of the power, within certain limitations, to will, and to
perform what he wills to do: To rise up, to sit down; to raise his
arm, to let it fall; to walk, to run, to stand; to go to Paris, to
Berlin, or to Egypt; to write a book, to build a house, to found a
hospital; to control largely his actions, physical and moral; he can
be sober or drunken; chaste, or a libertine; benevolent or selfish;
honest or a rogue. Having deliberated upon this and that and having
formed a judgment that one thing is better than another, or that one
condition is better than another, he has power to choose between
them and can determine to give his aid to this and withhold it from
that. So that volition, within certain limitations at least, seems
also to be a quality of Intelligence.[A] It is of course possible to
conceive of Intelligence and its necessarily attendant consciousness,
existing without volition; but Intelligence so conceived is shorn of
its glory, since under such conditions it can make no use whatsoever
of its powers. Its very thinking would be chaotic; its consciousness
distressing. If active at all its actions would be without purpose and
as chaotic as its thinking would be, unless it could be thought of as
both thinking and acting as directed by an intelligent, purposeful
will external to itself: which would still leave the Intelligence a
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