ARTICLE SIX. What Joseph Beheld. Seer and Prophet. "Seer" and "Prophet" are interchangeable terms, supposed by many to signify one and the same thing. Strictly speaking, however, this is not correct. A seer is greater than a prophet." One may be a prophet without being a seer; but a seer is essentially a prophet—if by "prophet" is meant not only a spokesman, but likewise a foreteller. Joseph Smith was both prophet and seer." Like Unto Moses.-A seer is one who sees. But it is not the ordinary sight that is meant. The seeric gift is a supernatural endowment. Joseph was "like unto Moses;" and Moses, who saw God face to face, explains how he saw him in these words: "Now mine own eyes have beheld God; yet not my natural, but my spiritual eyes; for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him." Such is the testimony of the ancient Seer, as brought to light by the Seer of Latter-days. a, Mosiah 8:15. b, Such men as Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American philosother, and Count Leo Tolstoi, the Russian writer, are sometimes referred to as "seers;" it being thought by those who so designate them, that the power to think profoundly and express wise and intelligent opinions, especially on the future, constitutes seership. It is in this sense that the term "vision" is so much used. But a great thinker is not necessarily a seer; though a seer is apt to be a great thinker. Joseph Smith was both; not so Ralph Waldo Emerson; not so Count Tolstoi. They were great philosophers, but there is nothing in the life-work of either to indicate that he possessed the power of a seer. c, Moses 1:11. Moses further declares that he could look upon Satan "in the natural man," but, says he: "I could not look upon God, except his glory should come upon me and I was strengthened before him." Spirit Eyes. Let it not be supposed, however, that to see spiritually is not to see literally. Vision is not fancy. not imagination. The object is actually beheld, though not with the natural eye. We all have spirit eyes, of which our natural or outward eyes are the counterpart. All man's organs and faculties are firstly spiritual, the body being but the clothing of the spirit. In our first estate, the spirit life, we "walked by sight." Therefore we had eyes. But they were not our natural eyes, for these are not given until the spirit tabernacles in mortality. All men have a spirit sight, but all are not permitted to use it under existing conditions. Even those thus privileged can only use it when quickened by the Spirit of the Lord.d Without that, no man can know the things of God, "because they are spiritually discerned." Much less can he look upon the Highest unspiritually, with carnal mind or with natural vision. "No man"-no natural man-"hath seen God at any time."f But men at divers times have seen him as Moses saw him-not with the natural but with the spiritual eye, quickened by the power that seeth and knoweth all things. By the Holy Ghost. The seeric faculty, possessed in greater degree by some than by others, is the original spirit sight reinforced or moved upon by the power of the Holy Ghost. By this means certain persons, peculiarly gifted and sent into the world for that purpose, are able, even while in the flesh, to see out of obscurity, "out of hidden darkness," and behold the things of God pertaining both to time and to eternity. Joseph Smith possessed this ability—this gift, but it was the Spirit of the Lord that enabled him to use it. By that Spirit he beheld the Father and the Son; and |