THE PHILOSOPHY OF "MORMONISM.”*

BY DR. JAMES E. TALMAGE, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH.

(Concluded.)

The Latter-day Saints affirm that the authority to act in the name of God-the Holy Priesthood—has been restored to earth in this dispensation and age, in accordance with the inspired predictions of earlier times. But, it may be asked, what necessity was there for a restoration if the Priesthood had been once established on earth? None indeed, had it never been taken away. A general apostasy from the primitive Church is conceded in effect by some authorities in ecclesiastical history; though few admit the entire discontinuance of priestly power, or the full suspension of authority to operate in the ordinances of The Church. This great apostasy was foretold. Paul warned the Saints of Thessalonica against those who claimed that the second coming of Christ was then near at hand: "For," said he, "that day shall not come except there be a falling away first." "Mormonism" contends that there has been a general falling away from The Church of Christ, dating from the time immediately following the apostolic period. We believe that the proper interpretation of history will confirm this view; and, moreover, that the inspired scriptures foretold just such a condition.

If the Priesthood had been once driven from the earth no human power could restore it; the reestablishment of this authority from heaven would be necessary. The Church claims that in the

*A lecture delivered by invitation under the auspices of the Denver Philosophical Society, at Denver, Colorado, March 14, 1901.

present age this restoration has been effected by the personal ministrations of those who exercised the authority in earlier dispensations. Thus, in 1829, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the Aaronic Priesthood under the hands of John the Baptist, who visited them as a resurrected being; and later, the higher or Melchisedek Priesthood, under the ministration of Peter, James and John.

That the claim is a bold one is conceded without argument. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints professes to have the Priesthood of old restored in its fullness; and, moreover, while acknowledging the right of every individual as of every sect or other organization of individuals to believe and practice according to choice in matters religious, it asserts that it is the only Church on the face of the earth possessing this authority and Priesthood; and that therefore it is The Church and the only Church of Christ. It claims as absolutely indispensable to the proper Church organization, the presence of the living oracles of God who shall be directed from the heavens in their earthly ministry; and these, "Mormonism" asserts, are to be found with The Church of Jesus Christ.

"Mormonism" emphasizes the doctrine that that which is Cæsar's be given unto Cæsar, while that which is God's be rendered unto him. Therefore, it teaches that all things pertaining unto earth, and unto man's earthly affairs, may with propriety be directed and authorized by earthly power, but that in the performance of any ordinance, rite, or ceremony, claimed to be of effect beyond the grave, a power greater than that of man is requisite or the performance is void. Therefore, membership in The Church, which, if of any value and significance at all, is of more than temporal meaning, must be governed by laws which are prescribed by the powers of heaven. "Mormonism" recognizes Christ as the head of The Church, as the literal Savior and Redeemer of mankind, as the King of kings and Lord of lords, as the one whose right it is to reign on earth, who shall yet subdue all worldly kingdoms under his feet, who shall present the earth in its final state of redemption to the Father. It is his right to prescribe the conditions under which mankind may be made partakers of his bounty and of the privileges of the victory won by him over death and the grave.

The Church claims that faith in God is essential to intelligent

service of him; and that faith, trust, confidence in God as the Father of mankind, as the Supreme Power to whom all shall render account of their deeds and misdeeds, must lead to a desire to serve him and thus produce repentance. Faith therefore ranks as the first, and repentance as the second, principle of the gospel. It is reasonable to expect that after man has developed faith in God, and has repented of his sins, he will be eager to find a means of demonstrating his sincerity; and this means is found in the requirement concerning baptism as essential to entrance into The Church, and as a means whereby remission of sins may be obtained. As to the mode of baptism, it affirms that immersion alone is the one method sanctioned by Scripture, and that this mode has been expressly prescribed by revelation in the existing Church.

Baptism, then, becomes the third principle and the first essential ordinance of the gospel. It is to be administered by one having authority; and that authority rests in the Priesthood given of God. Following baptism comes the ordinance of the bestowal of the Holy Ghost by the authorized imposition of hands. These principles, designated specifically the "first principles and ordinances of the gospel," "Mormonism" claims to be absolutely essential to membership in the Church of Christ, and this without modification or qualification as to the time at which the individual lived in mortality.!

Then with propriety it may be asked, "What shall become of those who lived and died while the Priesthood was not operative on earth?-those who have worked out their mortal probation during the ages of the great apostasy? Furthermore, what shall be the destiny of those who, though living in a time of spiritual light, perhaps had not the opportunity of learning and obeying the gospel requirements?" Here again the inherent justice of "Mormon” philosophy shows itself in the doctrine of salvation for the dead. No distinction is made between the living and the dead in the solemn declaration of the Savior to Nicodemus, which appears to have. been given the widest possible application,-that except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom.

"Mormonism" believes in something more than a heaven and a hell, to one or the other of which all spirits of men shall be assigned, perhaps on the basis of a very narrow margin of merits or

demerits. As it affirms the existence of an infinite range of graded intelligences, so it claims the widest and fullest gradation of conditions of future existence. It holds that the honest, though, perchance, mistaken soul who lived or tried to live according to the greatest light he had received, shall be counted among the honorable of the earth, and shall find opportunity, if not here then in the hereafter, for compliance with the requirements of salvation. It teaches that repentance with all its attendant blessings shall be possible beyond the grave; but that inasmuch as the change we call death does not transform the character of the soul, repentance there will be difficult for him who has ruthlessly and wilfully rejected the manifold opportunities afforded him for repentance here. It asserts that even the heathen who may have bowed down to stocks and stones, if in so doing he was obeying the highest law of worship which to his benighted soul has come, shall have part in the first resurrection, and shall be afforded the opportunity, which on earth he had not found, of doing that which is required of God's children for salvation.

And for the dead who have been without the privileges, perhaps indeed without the knowledge, of compliance with Christ's law, there shall be given opportunity in the hereafter.

Nevertheless, this life of ours is no trifle, no mere incident in the soul's eternal course, having but small temporary importance, the omissions of which can be rectified with ease by the individual beyond the vail. If compliance with the divine law as exemplified by the requirements of faith, repentance, baptism, and the bestowal of the right to the ministrations of the Holy Ghost, are essential to the salvation of those few who just now are counted among the living, such is not less necessary for those who once were living but now are dead. Who are the living of today but those who shortly shall be added to the uncounted dead? Who are the dead but those who at some time have experienced the opportunities of mortality?

Christ has been ordained to be judge of both quick and dead; he is Lord of living and dead as man uses these terms, for all live unto him. How then shall the dead receive the blessings and ordinances denied to them or by them neglected while in the flesh? By the vicarious work of the living in their behalf! It was this great

and privileged labor to which the Prophet Malachi referred in his solemn declaration, that before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, Elijah should be sent with the commission to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. Elijah's visitation to earth has been realized. On the 3rd of April, in the year 1836, there appeared unto Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, in the temple erected by the Latter-day Saints, at Kirtland, Ohio, Elijah the prophet, who announced that the time spoken of by Malachi had fully come; then and there he bestowed the authority, for this dispensation, to inaugurate and carry on this labor in behalf of the departed fathers.

As to the fidelity with which the Latter-day Saints have sought to discharge the duties thus divinely required at their hands, let the temples erected in the poverty as in the relative prosperityby the blood and tears of the people-testify. Two of these great edifices, dedicated partly to the blessing of the living, more particularly to the work of the living for the dead, were constructed by the Latter-day Saints in the days of their tribulation, in times of their direst persecution,-one at Kirtland, Ohio, the other at Nauvoo, Illinois. The first is still standing, though no longer possessed by the people who built it; and no longer employed for the furtherance of the purposes of its being; the second fell a prey to flames enkindled by mobocratic hate. Four others have been constructed in the vales of Utah, and are today in service for the accomplishment of this vicarious labor of love. In them the ordinances of baptism, and the laying on of hands for the bestowal of the Holy Ghost, are performed upon the living representatives of their dead kindred.

But this labor for the dead is two-fold; it comprises the proper performance of the required ordinances on earth, and the preaching of the gospel to the departed. Shall we suppose that all of God's good gifts to his children are restricted to the narrow limits of mortal existence? We are told of the inauguration of this great missionary labor in the spirit world, as effected by the Christ himself. After his resurrection, and immediately following the period during which his body had lain in the tomb guarded by the soldiery, he declared to the sorrowing Magdalene that he had not at that time ascended to his Father; and, in the light of his dying promise