stitute laws whereby the lesser spirits surrounding him night advance toward the lofty plane that he occupies. He proposed to lift them to his own spiritual stature, and share with them the empire of the universe. Salvation and Exaltation.-The Gospel of Christ is termed by St. Paul "the power of God unto salvation.' Paul might have gone further, had he been so inclined, or had it been timely. He could have shown that the Gospel is also the power of God unto exaltation, a plan devised by omnipotent wisdom whereby the sons and daughters of Deity may advance from stage to stage of soul development, until they become like their heavenly parents, the Eternal Father and Mother, inheriting endless thrones and dominions and receiving "a fulness of joy.s This is exaltation. It is more than salvation, being an extension of that idea or condition-salvation "added upon;" just as, salvation is an extension of, or an addition to, the idea or condition of redemption. A soul may be redeemed—that is, raised from the dead— and yet be condemned at the Final Judgment for evil deeds done in the body. Likewise may a soul be saved, and yet come short of the glory that constitutes exaltation. To redeem, save and glorify, is the threefold mission of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. r, Rom. 1:16. s, D. and C. 76:50-70; 93:33; Abr. 3:26. ARTICLE TWELVE. The Great Vicissitudes. Fall and Redemption.-The Fall of Man and the Redemption from the Fall, are the great vicissitudes of human experience. One is sequel to the other, and both are steps in the march of eternal progress. The Gospel, therefore, embraces the fall as well as the redemption. Both were essential, and both were preordained. The one prepared the way before the other. Had there been no fall, there could have been no redemption; for the simple reason that there would have been nothing to redeem. The Creation. Preliminary to the fall, came the creation. Earth, created as an abode and a place of probation for mortal man, was not made out of nothing, as human theology asserts, but out of previously existing materials, as divine revelation affirms. Millions of earths had been created in like manner before this planet rolled into existence." To create does not mean to make something out of nothing. Such a doctrine is neither scientific nor scriptural. Nothing remains nothing, of necessity; and no power, human or divine, can make it otherwise. Creation is organization, with materials at hand for the process. Joseph Smith's position upon this point, though combatted by doctors of divinity, is confirmed by the most advanced scientists and philosophers of modern times. The dogma that earth was made out of nothing is an attempt to glorify Deity by ascribing to him the power to perform the impossible to do that which cannot be done. As if Deity a, Moses 1:4, 38; 7:30. ་ could be glorified with anything of that sort, or had need of any such glorification. It is also an effort to escape from what many religious teachers consider a dilemma, the other horn of which would commit them to what they mistakenly deem a fallacy—namely, the eternity and self-existence of matter." ་ Eternity of Matter. "Mormonism" stands firmfooted upon this ground. It holds matter to be uncreateable, indestructible, without beginning or end, and consequently eternal. As for modern science, here are a few of its most recent conclusions upon the point at issue. Says Herbert Spencer: "The doctrine that matter is indestructible has become a commonplace. All the apparent proofs that something can come out of nothing, a wider knowledge has one by one canceled ("First Principles"). And John Fiske confirms him in saying: "It is now inconceivable that a particle of matter should either come into existence, or lapse into non-existence" ("Cosmic Philosophy"). Robert K. Duncan clinches the argument with the emphatic pronouncement: "We cannot create something out of nothing" ("New Knowledge"). Spirit and Element.-But Joseph Smith proclaimed it first. He declared the elements eternal;d and even went b, The Reverend Baden Powell, of Oxford University, quoted in Kitto's "Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature," says: "The idea of 'creation,' as meaning absolutely 'making out of nothing,' or calling into existence that which did not exist before, in the strictest sense of the term, is not a doctrine of scripture; but it has been held by many on the grounds of natural theology, as enhancing the ideas we form of the divine power, and more especially since the contrary must imply the belief in the eternity and self-existence of matter." c. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews asserts nothing to the contrary when he says: "Things which are seen were not made of things which do appear (Heb. 11:3). The "things" referred to ("the worlds" that were "framed by the word of God") had existed before, in other forms, invisible to mortal eye and intangible to human touch. d, D. and C. 93:33. so far as to say: "All spirit is matter, but it is more fine and pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes."e Eternal spirit, eternal element, these are the "materials" out of which Earth was created-not only as a temporary abode for man, but as an eternal place of residence for the righteous. in The Value of a Body.-Man needed experience in mortality, in the midst of rudimental conditions, order to acquire the experience that would fit him for spheres beyond. First, however, he needed a body, for purposes of increase and progression, both in time and eternity. The spirit without the body is incomplete; it cannot propagate, and it cannot go on to glory. "Spirit and element, inseparably connected, receiveth a fulness of joy; but when separated man cannot receive a fulness of joy."f It is a reasonable inference that our spirits advance as far as they can before they are given earthly bodies. Having received their bodies, they are in a position, by means of the Gospel and the powers of the Priesthood, to make further progress toward perfection. "We came to this earth," says Joseph Smith, "that we might have a body, and present it pure before God in the celestial kingdom. The great principle of happiness consists in having a body."s Satan's Punishment. The Prophet thus continues: "The Devil has no body, and herein is his punishment. . . All beings who have bodies have power over those who have not." The reason why Satan has no body is because he rebelled in the eternal councils when the Redeemer of the World was chosen. All who followed him shared a similar fate. Two thirds of the intelligences then populating the spirit world remained loyal, and as a reward for their e, D. and C. 131:7. f, Ib. 93:33, 34. g, "Compendium" p. 288; Hist. Ch. Vol. 5, p. 403. fidelity were permitted to tabernacle in the flesh. One third, rebelling with Lucifer, were doomed with him to perdition. Pending their final fate, these unembodied fallen spirits are allowed to wander up and down the world, tempting and trying its human inhabitants, their evil activities being overruled in a way to subserve God's purpose in man's probation. Placed in Eden.-Earth having been prepared for man, Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden— placed there to become mortal, that the Lord's purpose might be accomplished. The fall, though planned, was not compelled." Man still had his agency, the right and power of choice. Innocent in the Beginning.—The Great Creator, on the morning of creation, pronounced "good" all that He had made. In perfect keeping with this, modern revelation declares that "every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning." Consequently, had the spirits of men remained where they were before Adam fell, they would have had no need to exercise a saving faith, no need to repent or to be baptized, having no evil practices to turn from and no uncleanness to be washed away. But they would have remained ignorant as well as innocent-ignorant of things necessary to their further progress. Without the fall, they could have advanced no further, but would have remained as they were, "having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. . . . Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy."k h, Moses 3:17. |