A thing is poetic when it suggests something greater than itself. Man, fashioned in the divine image, suggests God, and is therefore "a symbol of God", as Carlyle affirms. But Joseph Smith goes further. He declares God to be "an exalted Man." To narrow minds this is blasphemy; but to the broad-minded it is poetry--poetry of the sublimest type. In the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, what is there of sacred efficacy in the bread and water, taken alone? There is not water enough in the ocean, nor bread enough in all the bakeries of the world, to constitute the Lord's Supper. All that makes it effective as a sacrament is the blessing pronounced upon it by the priesthood, and the symbolism whereby those elements are made to represent something greater than themselves, namely, the body and blood of the Saviour. What is done then becomes a holy ordinance, full of force and effect, a poem in action. The same is true of baptism. Jesus said: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." He meant baptism, which symbolizes birth or begetting. The priest when baptizing performs in a mystical or spiritual way the function of fatherhood. Motherhood is symbolized by the baptismal font. "Children of my begetting", is a phrase used by the ancient apostles to characterize their converts, who are also referred to as "babes in Christ", fed upon "the milk of the word". Paul says, concerning baptism: "We are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life". (Romans 6:4.) This shows that baptism, when properly administered, is a symbol of burial and resurrection--rebirth. But the symbolism must be perfect or the ordinance is void. To sprinkle or pour water upon the candidate for baptism, destroys the symbolism, or the poetry of the ordinance. It does not represent a birth--a burial and a resurrection. When the body is immersed, however,--and that is the meaning of the Greek term to baptize--descent into the grave is typified; and when the body is brought up out of the water, birth or coming forth from the grave is symbolized. To be baptized or resurrected is equivalent to being "born again." The soul, cleansed from sin, is typical of the soul raised to immortality. Such is the poetry of baptism and the resurrection. Jesus Christ, the greatest of all prophets, was likewise the greatest of all poets. He comprehended the universe and its symbolism as no one else ever did, and he taught in poetic parables, taking simple things as types, and teaching lessons that lead the mind upward and onward toward the ideal, toward perfection. We must not despise poetry; it is indispensable, even in practical affairs. The Gospel of Christ is replete with poetry. None but the ignorant pass it by as a thing of naught. What of Philosophy?