Part 23

It may be argued, however, that in these illustrative instances neither the mortal parent nor the human forecaster had power to alter the respective course of events, while God can direct and over-rule as He wills. But, be it remembered that God has granted agency unto His children, and does not control them in its exercise by arbitrary force. He impels no man toward sin; He compels none to righteousness.

The Father of our spirits has a full knowledge of the nature and disposition of each of His children, a knowledge gained by observation and experience in the long ages of our primeval childhood, when we existed as unembodied spirits, endowed with individuality and agency--a knowledge compared with which that gained by earthly parents through experience with their children in the flesh is infinitesimally small. In that surpassing knowledge God reads the future of child and children, of men individually and of men collectively. He knows what each will do under given conditions, and sees the end from the beginning. His foreknowledge is based on intelligence and reason. He foresees the future of men and nations as a state that naturally and surely will be; not as a state of things that must be because He has arbitrarily willed that it shall be.

"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." (Acts 15:18.)

He willed and decreed the mortal state for His spirit offspring, and prepared the earth for their schooling. He provided all the facilities necessary to their training, and thus proclaimed His purpose:

"For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 7.)

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ARE MEN CREATED EQUAL?

Individualism is Eternal

DEMOCRACY holds as a distinguishing and fundamental principle the recognition of individual rights and privileges. The living units of a democratic system are citizens, not subjects. Before the law, so far as it be administered in justice, all citizens are on a plane of equality. In the exercise of the elective franchise, for example, the ballot of the poor man, the unscholarly, the weak, sick or maimed, counts just as much as that of the millionaire, the university graduate, or the athlete. All this is inherent in democracy as a political system. If through corrupt administration a citizen suffers deprivation of his rights, the fault, grievous though ti be, is not chargeable to the system but to the officials who have misused the authority delegated to them.

In this sense it is affirmed in the Declaration of Independence, as the first of the truths therein set forth as self-evident, and as assuring to all their inalienable rights "that all men are created equal;" and in this sense the affirmation is irrefutable. No other foundation could support a stable structure of government by the people.

But it is manifest folly to carry this conception of the legal equality of citizenship to the extreme of assuming that all men are alike in capacity, ability, or power. As long as mankind live in communities there will be leaders and followers, men of prominence, and of necessity others who are relatively obscure, men of energy and idlers, and consequently masters and servants.

Doubtless much of the existing disparity among men, such as the inequitable distribution of wealth, the unrighteous acquisition of power and its iniquitous exercise, is pernicious--evil in the sight of God and ominously wrong under the laws of man. Nevertheless, attempts to right such wrongs by illegal force, and to establish a false equality by promiscuously taking from one to give to another, tend toward disruption and anarchy.

We are confronted by this profound fact: Individualism is an attribute of the soul, and as truly eternal as the soul itself.

(1) In the unembodied, preexistent or antemortal state, we were decidedly unequal in capacity and power.

(2) We know we are not equal here in the world of mortals.

(3) Assuredly we shall not be equal after death, either in the intermediate state of disembodiment or beyond the resurrection.

We read that Jeremiah was chosen from among his fellows and ordained before he was born to be a prophet unto the nations (Jer. 1:5) ; and a similar fore-ordination is indicated by Isaiah (49:1, 5.) Abraham definitely avers that among the unembodied spirits there were differences, some were noble and great and others less adapted to the duties of rulership: "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones. And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers." (Pearl of Great Price p. 65-66.)

The God of spirits recognized particular qualifications in some, and selected them to be leaders among men. Let us not assume that the "rulers" thus divinely chosen are necessarily those whom men would later elect to be their leaders. Many of God's great ones have been and are counted among the despised of earth. So it was with the Christ Himself, and so with many of His prophets, apostles and revelators unto mankind.

Born into the flesh with diverse capacities, subjected here to varied environment, which may be favorable or opposed to the development of inherent tendencies toward either good or evil, we as a race are creatures of disparity, inequality, and heterogeneous circumstance. But all color of injustice disappears in the light of assurance that, in the judgment of souls, every condition shall be weighed in the accurate balances of Justice and Mercy.

But what of the hereafter--shall we not be made equal there? Not in the sense that our individuality shall be subverted or radically changed. We shall find beyond more gradations in society than we have ever known on earth. But the basis of classification will be essentially different. Here we are rated according to what we have--of wealth, learning, political or other influence due to circumstance; there we shall find our place according to what we really are.

Ponder the significance of our Lord's assurance of the "many mansions" in the Father's kingdom (John 14:1-3) and consider Paul's summary of varied glories. (1 Cor. 15:40-41.)

Through later Scripture we are told of distinct kingdoms or worlds of graded order, comparable to the sun, moon, and stars respectively. There are the Celestial, the Terrestrial, and the Telestial kingdoms, in which the souls of men shall abide and serve as their attainments in righteousness or their disqualification through sin shall determine. Concerning the inhabitants of the Telestial world, the lowest of the specified kingdoms of glory, we read: "For they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, his own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared." (D&C 76:111.)

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ETHICS AND RELIGION

A Distinction With a Difference

UNDOUBTEDLY there are many people who, while of earnest intent and practise, of worthy, honorable, and moral life, neither profess religion nor confess belief in it. At least, so they would say if questioned. Closer analysis would probably show that by religion these good people had understood Church membership or actual affiliation with some religious organization. And their conception is not irrational nor fundamentally wrong; though such membership or affiliation is no assurance of personal religion.

The foundation of all religion is a real belief, or, more accurately, faith, in the existence of a Supreme Being upon whose beneficence man is dependent and to whom he is accountable for his conduct. With this belief, man cannot fail to recognize the superlative duty of learning God's will and of living according to His revealed word and law.

Mankind being by nature gregarious, and indeed unsuited to solitary existence, will congregate according to community interests, beliefs and aspirations. In the tribal organizations of peoples whom we call semi-civilized, there is generally a distinctive religion for each tribe; even though it be but a phase of paganism; and their unenlightened souls are held together by their generic conception of worship. Among larger and more advanced nations differences in religious conceptions are manifest, and people associate in rival sects and churches. Voluntary membership in any such body is at least a profession of belief in its distinguishing tenets.

But beside these there are many who aver that ethics is sufficient, and that a moral life will insure salvation in the world to come. Granted that religious profession without morality is but mockery and hypocrisy. Nevertheless, between the merely ethical and the really religious life, there is vital distinction.

To assume that an ethical or even a strictly moral course of conduct is all-sufficient for the soul's salvation would be to repudiate Scripture, deny the essential efficacy of the Atonement, dethrone the Christ, and eliminate God from earthly affairs. Such an assumption proclaims the stupendous error that mortal man is competent to save himself--on his terms, and according to a standard established by human agency.

Religion is more than a code of morals. Man can no more be saved by ethics than can he live by bread alone. The spiritual nutriment, without which no soul can develop to the exalted status of eternal life, consists of "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

The very purpose for which this earth was created as an abiding place for the spirit-children of God during their brief period of embodiment in flesh was to test and "prove them herewith to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them." (Pearl of Great Price p. 66.)

It is conceivable that ethics may measurably satisfy the conscience of one who really believes that mortal life is the sum total of existence; though I seriously doubt that such a being exists. If he lives, he is dangerously liable to stifle conscience, and to follow the easier though pernicious prompting to eat, drink and be merry whilst he may, taking no thought for the morrow of eternity.

But, it is fair to ask, shall not morality count in the judgment to come? Beyond question, Yes. God's word so declares. The clean minded who, however, fail to comply with the specified laws and ordinances of the Gospel of Christ, are not to be cast into the society of the spiritually filthy; neither are they to be exalted with the valiant who have righteously obeyed the requirements of the Gospel.

There is a hell to which shall go the "liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie." Furthermore, there is a kingdom prepared to receive the "honorable men of the earth who were blinded by the craftiness of men"--the unfortunate and deluded who have followed after human theories and precepts to the ignoring of God and His word, the misled devotees of "science falsely so called."

And above all else is the state of eternal life and exaltation provided for those who, while in the flesh, lived the religion of Christ, "who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial"; for "these are they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood." (D&C 76.)

The Lord's affirmation is definite: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved"; for if his belief be vital he will make the morality that Christ taught the foundation of his religion. "But he that believeth not shall be damned," whatever his standard of ethics may be. (See Mark 16:16.)

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RELIGION ACTIVE AND PASSIVE

Effort Essential to Salvation

RELIGION to be worth while must be a vital element of life and work. It is of both temporal and spiritual significance, value and effect. It has to do with individual morality, with mutual dealings and associations of men even in ordinary, every-day affairs, with the great problems involved in family unity and efficiency and with the little things that make or mar the home, with work and play, with the duties of citizenship, statesmanship and public service generally.

All these relationships are human and earthly, and the honorable discharge of duties arising therefrom approaches ethical perfection. But man's standard of ethics is of necessity unstable, variable and, withal, unsatisfying to the soul having a healthful hunger for spiritual nourishment.

Who of us has not felt at times the spontaneous yearning and aspirations incident to our deep inborn conviction of life beyond death? We may weaken these emotions by persistently ignoring them; we may effectively stifle them by rude force; we may render them dormant by the poisonous anodyne of false philosophy and the boastful pride of man's mis-called wisdom; but kill them we can not, for they were divinely implanted and are deathless.

And as there is a hereafter, in which every soul of us shall live in continuation of the eternal existence of which earthlife is but a span, so surely shall our status there be determined by the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or evil.

Religion, then, has to do not only with this life but with that to come. We are but sojourners on earth; and, profoundly important as is this mortal experience, it is, after all, mainly a probation, and essentially a preparation for eternity.

It is temporarily easier to be passive than aggressive, whether we claim for our guiding code man's rules of ethics or the clear-cut requirements of the Gospel of Christ. There are more good men on earth than men who are good for much.

The Gospel demands something greater than avoidance of actual sins of commission. The culpability of neglect and omission may justly condemn the soul. Wilful spurning of Divine opportunity may work eternal loss. Though the Scriptures affirm the possibility of progression after death, nowhere do we find ground for assuming that failure to obey the Gospel on earth will be nullified by immediate remission beyond. We have no basis for computing the ages that shall be requisite to make amends there for wanton failure here.

There is a time in the eternal existence of souls which has been specifically made the time of repentance and test; and that is the period of mortality. Paul's forceful admonition is of universal application: "Lay hold on eternal life" while opportunity is found (1 Tim. 6:12, 19). For, be it remembered that the Lord has spoken concerning the wilfully unrepentant: "From him shall be taken even the light which he has received, for my Spirit shall not always strive with man, saith the Lord of Hosts." (D&C 1:33.)

Sin is conducive to lethargy in things spiritual; the Gospel inspires to life and activity. Contentment with the things of this world, so long as they go to suit us, with no thought of what shall follow, is the devil's lullaby. In the moment of supreme complacency when we are expressing by word, act, thought, or through sheer inaction, the stultifying soliloquy "Soul, take thine ease," may come the summoning decree: "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." Read Luke 12:16-21.

When will men awaken to the imperative yet persuasive summons to repentance? Are not the awful vicissitudes of the days of war and death sufficient to arouse us to some realization of the solemnities of eternity? As a nation we have valiantly waged war for the vindication of the rights, privileges, and liberties of men. As individuals we are summoned by the call of God to resist iniquity, and to make peace and reconciliation with Him through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

Only through active, vital faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, effective repentance of wrong-doing, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost or the higher baptism of the Spirit, can salvation be attained in the Kingdom of God, for so the Holy Scriptures aver.

The pleading call of the ancient prophet is yet in force. Hear ye, and heed: "Now I say unto you, that ye must repent, and be born again: for the Spirit saith, If ye are not born again, ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness." (Book of Mormon, Alma 7:14.)

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REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY

A Law unto Man from the Beginning

THE Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts Sunday as the Christian Sabbath and proclaims the sanctity of the day. We admit without argument that under the Mosaic Law the seventh day of the week, Saturday, was designated and observed as the Holy Day, and that the change from Saturday to Sunday was a feature of the apostolic administration following the personal ministry of Jesus Christ. Greater to us than the question of this day or that in the week, is the actuality of the weekly Sabbath, to be observed as a day of special and particular devotion to the service of the Lord.

The Sabbath was prefigured if not definitely specified in the record of the creation, wherein we read, following the account of the six days or periods of creative effort: "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." (Gen. 2:3.)

In the early stages of the Exodus the Israelites were commanded to lay in a double portion of manna on the sixth day, for the seventh was consecrated as a day of holy rest; and this was signalized by the Lord's withholding manna on the Sabbath day. See Exo. 16:23-30. There is no proof that Sabbath observance by Israel at this early date was an innovation; and it may be reasonably regarded as a recognition of an established order by reenactment in the new dispensation. Later, when the decalog was codified and promulgated on Sinai, the Sabbath law was made particularly explicit, and the Lord's rest was cited as its foundation:

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exo. 20:8-11.)

The keeping of the Sabbath as a day of surcease from toil and of particular devotion came to be a national characteristic of the Israelites, whereby they were distinguished from pagan nations; and rightly so, for the observance of the Holy Day was specified as a distinctive sign of the covenant between Jehovah and His people. See Exo. 31:13.

In the course of Israelitish history successive prophets admonished and rebuked the people for neglect or profanation of the Sabbath. Nehemiah ascribed the affliction of the nation to the forfeiture of Divine protection through Sabbath violation (see Neh. 13:15-22); and by the mouth of Ezekiel the Lord reaffirmed the significance of the Sabbath as a mark of His covenant with Israel, and sternly upbraided those who observed not the day. (See Ezek. 20:12-24.) To the detached branch of Israel, which, as the Book of Mormon avers, was transplanted to American soil, Sabbath observance was no less an imperative requirement. See Jarom 1:5; Mosiah 13:16-19; 18:23.

Long before the birth of Christ the original purpose of the Sabbath and the spirit of its service had come to be largely lost sight of among the Jews; and rabbinical rules had introduced numerous technicalities, which made of the day one of discomfort and severity. This condition was strongly denounced by our Lord in reply to the many criticisms heaped upon Him because of the healings and other good works wrought by Him on the Sabbath. "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath," said He, and then continued with the profound affirmation: "The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath." (Mark 2:27, 28.)

Christ came not to destroy the Law of Moses but to fulfil it; and through Him the law was superseded by the Gospel. The Savior rose from the tomb on the first day of the week; and that particular Sunday, as also the next, was rendered forever memorable by the bodily visitation of the resurrected Lord to the assembled Apostles and others. To the believers in the crucified and risen Savior Sunday became the Lord's Day (Rev. 1:10), and in time took the place of Saturday as the weekly Sabbath in the Christian churches.

The Church of Jesus Christ teaches that Sunday is the acceptable day for Sabbath observance, on the authority of direct revelation specifying the Lord's Day as such. In this, a new dispensation, and verily the last--the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times--the law of the Sabbath has been reaffirmed unto the Church. It is to be noted that the revelation, part of which follows, was given to the Church on a Sunday (August 7th, 1831.)

"And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day. For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High. Nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times. But remember that on this the Lord's day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord. And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy may be full." (D&C 59:9-13.)

We believe that a weekly day of rest is no less truly a necessity for the physical well-being of man than for his spiritual growth; but, primarily and essentially, we regard the Sabbath as divinely established, and its observance a commandment of Him who was and is and ever shall be, Lord of the Sabbath.

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THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD

And the Wisdom of Men

"For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. . . . Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (Cor. 1:18, 25.)

So spake Paul in olden days, and he knew whereof he spake. Rich in the learning of Jews and Greeks, ripe in scholarship and experience, he possessed breadth of foresight and depth of insight far exceeding the average capacity of men; and to these superior qualifications of mind must be added the transcendent spiritual endowments of the apostle, the prophet, the seer, the revelator.

His abnegation and humility are no less striking than the incontestable sincerity and genuineness of his avowals. Inspired philosopher as he was, he discriminated with keen perception and clear vision between knowledge and wisdom, and with masterly skill contrasted the fallible teachings of men with the unshakable averments of prophecy.

The Greeks of Paul's time prided themselves on their learning, philosophy, and science, much of which last was "falsely so called." By such the preaching of the cross, the teachings of the Gospel, the precepts of eternal life were accounted but vain babblings. Those pagan Greeks were mindtrained but spirit-dwarfed. And that type of misshapen monstrosity is not yet extinct.