no perfection. To bring about this great consummation, the Gospel was instituted, the Savior chosen, Earth created, and the human race placed upon this planet. Nothing imperfect can inherit the Divine Presence-the fulness of God's glory. This important lesson is taught by the principle of marriage-celestial marriage-the sealing of the sexes, not for time only, but for all eternity. "The man is not without the woman, nor the woman without the man, in the Lord." United, they represent completeness, perfection, each being the complement of the other. Husband and wife, parent and child, the living and the dead, must be one, lest it be said of them at the celestial gates, as it was said at the gates of Verdun: "They shall not pass." The Latter-day Saints build temples and officiate therein, the living for the dead, not only to save them, but to bring them into that grand Order of Unity, so necessary to the perfection of God's work. The Keys of Preparation.-Past and present are related. It is the relationship of parent and child. Neither is complete without the other. What has been and what is must join, before perfection can reign. Without unity and the perfecting power of righteousness, the Saints would be unprepared to receive the King of Kings. Earth, unable to endure the overpowering glory of his presence, would vanish from before his face, like hoar-frost in the rays of the rising sun." That there might be no such calamity, no converting of an intended blessing into a consuming curse, Elijah restored the Keys of Preparation. The Universal Gathering.-The gathering of the House of Israel is to be supplemented by a greater gather q, 1 Cor. 11:11. ing the bringing together of all the Gospel dispensations, with all the sacred powers and mighty personages connected therewith. There is to be a general assembly, a universal union, in which sainted souls from all glorified creations will join." All things that are Christs's, both in heaven and on earth, will eventually be brought together, and the divided and discordant parts attuned and blended into one harmonious Whole. s, D. & C. 27:5-14. t, Ib. 76:67; Moses 7:31, 64. ARTICLE TWENTY-EIGHT. The Priesthood. What "Priesthood" Means.-Divine authority, or the right to rule, inherent in the supreme Source of all power— such is the primal meaning of "Priesthood." It also signifies the men in whom that authority is vested—the servants of the Lord, who officiate for him and administer the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. Why Necessary.-Divine laws, like human laws, require officers and a government to administer them. God, being in the form of man, cannot be everywhere present in his own person. Immanent by the spirit that proceeds from him, omnipresent by his power, influence and authority, He cannot, as a personage, occupy two places at the same time, any more than he can make something out of nothing or do aught else that is impossible. To say that Deity can do that which cannot be done, is no glorification of Deity. It is sheer nonsense, nothing more. Since the Supreme Being cannot be everywhere present in person, cannot be in Heaven and on Earth simultaneously, he requires representatives to carry on his work in this as in other parts of the universe. Herein is the prime reason, the fundamental fact, underlying the necessity for a Priesthood and a Church organization. A Twofold Power.-There are two priesthoods in the Church of Christ, or, more properly, two grand divisions of priesthood, namely, the Melchizedek and the Aaronic, the latter an appendage to the former. This dualism is owing to the fact that Divine Government takes cognizance of and deals with things temporal as well as with things a, Hist. Ch. Vol. 4, p. 207; D. & C. 107:1-20. |