DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT AT NAUVOO—INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

AFTER the effort of the Prophet's enemies to drag him into Missouri on the charge of being an accessory before the fact in an attempt upon the life of ex-Governor Boggs, Nauvoo was granted a blessed season of peace, lasting from January, 1843, to the month of June following. It is well to note the circumstance, for Nauvoo had few such periods. Peace is essential to the growth of cities. Commerce flees from strife; and trade sinks into decay where conflicts distract the people. Nauvoo was favorably located and no city in the inland-West gave better promise of becoming an important center of domestic commerce, manufactures, and inland and river trade. With peace it could easily have become the rival of St. Louis or Chicago; and Kansas City and Omaha as outfitting points for the great West might scarcely have been known. In addition to being a center of trade, manufactures and domestic commerce, the presence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would have made it a shrine, a gathering place for the faithful from all parts of the world, and an educational center also; for already the charters were secured and the faculty chosen for a great university; and the keen interest which the Prophet and his followers had ever manifested in education gave every promise that Nauvoo in time would be one of the prominent centers of higher education in the United States.

The peace essential to this material and educational growth, however, was not granted to Nauvoo. Sectarian bitterness against the religion of the Prophet and his followers was too deep-rooted; political jealousy was too strong; and hence strife, plots, threats of violence, actual violence, rumors of invasions from Missouri, hints of assistance from mobs in Illinois, the frequent arrest of the founder of the city, the false reports that went abroad concerning its inhabitants—all combined to blight the growth which otherwise might have been hoped for from Nauvoo's favorable position and early development. But this lull referred to in that all but incessant storm which beat upon the uncovered head of Joseph Smith from the time he announced to the world a revelation from God until this period of grace—from January, 1843, to the June following—was employed by him to good advantage in the matter of the doctrinal development of The Church. It was in this period that he unfolded the doctrines which most distinguish The Church, which under God he had founded, from the sectarian churches founded by men. Unfortunately we do not have verbatim reports of his discourses during this period. Most of them were reported in long-hand by Willard Richards, his confidential friend and secretary, and Wilford Woodruff, one of the Twelve Apostles and noted among other things for daily journalizing events passing under his observation. But these reports are not verbatim, and there doubtless exist many verbal inaccuracies, and often the impression of the idea left upon the mind of the reporter rather than the idea itself. But notwithstanding some verbal inaccuracies that may exist, and even the statement of the impression of ideas for the ideas themselves, still these long-hand reports of the discourses of the Prophet, stand among the most valued documents of our annals.

Without strict regard to the chronological order in which occur his discourses, conversations, letters, and revelations quoted in the following pages of the chapters devoted to doctrinal subjects, I wish to present the substance of his teachings within the period named.

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE PRIESTHOOD TO BLESS.

To Orson Hyde, one of the Twelve, somewhat given to prophesying calamities and speaking with severity to those slow to receive his words, the Prophet took occasion to say in a council meeting of the Twelve:

I told Elder Hyde that when he spoke in the name of the Lord, it should prove true; but he must not curse the people—rather bless them.

A remark which at once recognizes the power of that Priesthood held by Orson Hyde—even though he curse the people—but he more especially points out the fact that the chief function of that Priesthood is to bless and not curse.

THE SCRIPTURES AND THEIR INTERPRETATION.

Occasionally the Prophet expounded the Scriptures, and in this he was most happy: not so much on account of his knowledge of ancient languages—though that knowledge, when his opportunities for acquiring it are taken into account, was surprisingly extensive—as from that divine inspiration which so mightily rested upon him at times. Of the Bible itself the Prophet said:

I believe the Bible as it read when it came from the pen of the original writers. Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests have committed many errors.

As an example of the errors which had crept into the holy record he put in contrast the following:

It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth.—Genesis v: 6.

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent.—Numbers xxiii: 19.

His exegesis, which at once harmonizes the conflicting passages, and satisfies the understanding, is as follows:

It ought to read: It repented Noah that God had made man. This I believe, and then the other quotation [meaning the second] stands fair. If any man will prove to me by one passage of holy writ one item I believe to be false, I will renounce and disclaim it as far as I have promulgated it.

In like manner he set the following passage right, Hebrews VI: 1-6.

The first principles of the Gospel, as I believe, are, Faith, Repentance, Baptism for the remission of sins, with the promise of the Holy Ghost. Look at Hebrews VI: 1, for contradictions! "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection." If a man leaves the principles of the doctrine of Christ, how can he be saved in the principles? This is a contradiction. * * * I will render it as it should be: "Therefore not leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith towards God," etc.

In like manner he pointed out a solecism in the Lord's prayer. It reads in our common version:

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, etc.

In contrast with this may be placed the statement of James:

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.—James 1: 13.

Then why pray to God the Father—

And lead us not into temptation?

The Prophet's exegesis was:

The passage should read: And leave us not—or, suffer us not to be led, into temptation, for thine is the kingdom, etc.

Again, in a public discourse he dealt with the following passage:

Among those that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater prophet than John the Baptist: nevertheless, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Taking up the first part of the question, viz: the greatness of John, he thus expounded it:

Firstly, he [John] was trusted with a divine mission of preparing the way before the face of the Lord. Whoever had such a trust committed to him before or since? No man. Secondly, he was intrusted with the important mission, and it was required at his hands to baptize the Son of Man. Whoever had the honor of doing that? Whoever had so great a privilege and glory? Whoever led the Son of God into the waters of baptism, and had the privilege of beholding the Holy Ghost descend in the form of a dove, or rather in the sign of a dove, in witness of that administration? * * * Thirdly, John at that time was the only legal administrator in the affairs of the kingdom there was then on earth and holding the keys of power. The Jews had to obey his instructions or be damned by their own laws, and Christ Himself fulfilled all righteousness in becoming obedient to the law which He had given to Moses on the mount, and thereby magnified it and made it honorable, instead of destroying it. The son of Zachariah wrested the keys, the kingdom, the power, the glory, from the Jews, by the holy anointing and decree of heaven; and these three reasons constitute him the greatest Prophet born of women.

Taking up the second part of the subject—"He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he," [i. e., greater than John]—it was made easy to understand in the following manner:

How was the least in the kingdom of heaven greater than he [John]? In reply, I ask who did Jesus have reference to as being the least? Jesus was looked upon as having the least claim in all God's kingdom, and was least entitled to their credulity as a Prophet, as though he had said: "He that is considered the least among you, is greater than John—that is myself."

Explaining the matter of interpretation itself, he said:

What is the rule of interpretation? Just no interpretation at all. Understand it precisely as it reads. I have a key by which I understand the Scriptures. I inquire, what was the question which drew out the answer or caused Jesus to utter the parable? * * * To ascertain its meaning, we must dig to the root and ascertain what it was that drew the saying out of Jesus.

While this was said especially in relation to the parable of the prodigal son, it may well be given a wider application; and it will be found a great aid in arriving at the truth of many supposedly hard sayings of the Scriptures. But while this key or rule of interpretation was doubtless of great service to the Prophet in his study of the scriptures, he was helped in another and a more important way to understand them; to understand them in a manner which I cannot explain better than by quoting a passage with which he dealt at an earlier date than the period with which I am now dealing, but which is of such moment and helps to illustrate the work we find him doing at Nauvoo during this interim of peace, that we can well afford to stop and consider it. As early as 1831 the Prophet with Sidney Rigdon set about the task of bringing forth a new and inspired translation of the Bible. Their work extended also into the year 1832. On the 16th day of February of that year, they came, in the course of their work, to the twenty-ninth verse of the fifth chapter of John's Gospel, speaking of the resurrection of the dead, concerning those who shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and shall come forth, and which in our common version stands:

And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

But to the Prophet it was given:

* * * And shall come forth: they who have done good in the resurrection of the just, and they who have done evil, in the resurrection of the unjust.

Then follows upon this rendering of the passage by the Spirit, a revelation concerning the future state of man and the different degrees of glory which he will inherit, the like of which is not to be found elsewhere in all that is written among the children of men; and which, in part, I quote. Reverting to the passage as given by the Spirit, the Prophet says:

Now this caused us to marvel, for it was given unto us of the Spirit; and while we meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the glory of God shone round about;

THE VISION OF THE SON'S GLORY.

And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fullness;

And saw the holy angels, and they who are sanctified before his throne, worshiping God, and the Lamb, who worship him for ever and ever.

And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony last of all, which we give of him, that he lives;

For we saw him, even on the right hand of God, and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—

That by him and through him, and of him the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.

THE FALL OF LUCIFER.

And this we saw also, and bear record, that an angel of God who was in authority in the presence of God, who rebelled against the Only Begotten Son, whom the Father loved, and who was in the bosom of the Father—was thrust down from the presence of God and the Son,

And was called Perdition, for the heavens wept over him—he was Lucifer, a son of the morning.

And we beheld, and lo, he is fallen! is fallen! even a son of the morning.

And while we were yet in the Spirit, the Lord commanded us that we should write the vision, for we beheld Satan, that old serpent—even the devil—who rebelled against God, and sought to take the kingdom of our God, and his Christ,

Wherefore he maketh war with the saints of God, and encompasses them round about.

And we saw a vision of the sufferings of those with whom he made war and overcame, for thus came the voice of the Lord unto us.

Thus saith the Lord, concerning all those who know my power, and have been made partakers thereof, and suffered themselves, through the power of the devil, to be overcome, and to deny the truth and defy my power—

They are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom I say that it had been better for them never to have been born,

For they are vessels of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the devil and his angels in eternity;

Concerning whom I have said there is no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come,

Having denied the Holy Spirit after having received it, and having denied the Only Begotten Son of the Father—having crucified him unto themselves, and put him to an open shame.

These are they who shall go away into the lake of fire and brimstone, with the devil and his angels,

And the only ones on whom the second death shall have any power;

Yea, verily, the only ones who shall not be redeemed in the due time of the Lord, after the sufferings of his wrath;

For all the rest shall be brought forth by the resurrection of the dead, through the triumph and the glory of the Lamb, who was slain, who was in the bosom of the Father before the worlds were made.

And this is the gospel, the glad tidings which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us,

That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness;

That through him all might be saved whom the Father had put into his power and made by him,

Who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands, except those sons of perdition, who deny the Son after the Father has revealed him;

Wherefore, he saves all except them they shall go away into everlasting punishment, which is endless punishment, which is eternal punishment, to reign with the devil and his angels in eternity, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, which is their torment;

And the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows,

Neither was it revealed, neither is, neither will be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof:

Nevertheless I, the Lord, show it by vision unto many, but straightway shut it up again;

Wherefore the end, the width, the height, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not, neither any man except them who are ordained unto this condemnation.

And we heard the voice, saying, Write the vision, for lo! this is the end of the vision of the sufferings of the ungodly!

OF THOSE WHO INHERIT THE CELESTIAL GLORY.

And again, we bear record, for we saw and heard, and this is the testimony of the gospel of Christ, concerning them who come forth in the resurrection of the just;

They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in the water in his name, and this according to the commandment which he has given,

That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and scaled unto this power,

And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true.

They are they who are the church of the first born.

They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things—

They are they who are Priests and Kings, who have received of his fullness, and of his glory,

And are Priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchisedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son;

Wherefore, as it is written, they are Gods, even the sons of God—

Wherefore all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ's and Christ is God's;

And they shall overcome all things;

Wherefore let no man glory in man, but rather let him glory in God, who shall subdue all enemies under his feet—

These shall dwell in the presence of God and his Christ for ever and ever.

These are they whom he shall bring with him, when he shall come in the clouds of heaven, to reign on the earth over his people.

These are they who shall have part in the first resurrection.

These are they who shall come forth in the resurrection of the just.

These are they who are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all.

These are they who have come to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of Enoch, and of the first born.

These are they whose names are written in heaven, where God and Christ are the judge of all.

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.

These are they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical.

THOSE OF THE TERRESTRIAL GLORY.

And again, we saw the terrestrial world, and behold and lo, these are they who are of the terrestrial, whose glory differs from that of the church of the first born, who have received the fullness of the Father, even as that of the moon differs from the sun in the firmament.

Behold, these are they who died without law,

And also they who are the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh,

Who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it.

These are they who are honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men.

These are they who receive of his glory, but not of his fullness.

These are they who receive of the presence of the Son, but not of the fullness of the Father;

Wherefore they are bodies terrestrial, and not bodies celestial, and differ in glory as the moon differs from the sun.

These are they who are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of our God.

And now this is the end of the vision which we saw of the terrestrial, that the Lord commanded us to write while we were yet in the Spirit.

THOSE WHO INHERIT THE TELESTIAL GLORY.

And again, we saw the glory of the telestial, which glory is that of the lesser, even as the glory of the stars differs from that of the glory of the moon in the firmament.

These are they who received not the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus.

These are they who deny not the Holy Spirit.

These are they who are thrust down to hell.

These are they who shall not be redeemed from the devil, until the last resurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the Lamb shall have finished his work.

These are they who receive not of his fullness in the eternal world, but of the Holy Spirit through the ministration of the terrestrial;

And the terrestrial through the ministration of the celestial;

And also the telestial receive it of the administering of angels who are appointed to minister for them, or who are appointed to be ministering spirits for them, for they shall be heirs of salvation.

SUMMARY OF THE GREAT VISION.

And thus we saw in the heavenly vision, the glory of the telestial, which surpasses all understanding,

And no man knows it except him to whom God has revealed it.

And thus we saw the glory of the terrestrial, which excels in all things the glory of the telestial, even in glory, and in power, and in might, and in dominion.

And thus we saw the glory of the celestial, which excels in all things—where God, even the Father, reigns upon his throne for ever and ever;

Before whose throne all things bow in humble reverence and give him glory for ever and ever.

They who dwell in his presence are the church of the first born, and they see as they are seen, and know as they are known, having received of his fullness and of his grace;

And he makes them equal in power, and in might, and in dominion.

And the glory of the celestial is one, even as the glory of the sun is one.

And the glory of the terrestrial is one, even as the glory of the moon is one.

And the glory of the telestial is one, even as the glory of the stars is one, for as one star differs from another star in glory, even so differs one from another in glory in the telestial world;

For these are they who are of Paul, and of Apollos, and of Cephas.

These are they who say they are some of one and some of another—some of Christ and some of John, and some of Moses, and some of Elias, and some of Esaias, and some of Isaiah, and some of Enoch;

But receive not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant.

Last of all, these all are they who will not be gathered with the saints, to be caught up unto the church of the first born, and received into the cloud.

These are they who are liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.

These are they who suffer the wrath of God on the earth.

These are they who suffer the vengeance of eternal fire.

These are they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of Almighty God, until the fullness of times when Christ shall have subdued all enemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work,

When he shall deliver up the kingdom, and present it unto the Father spotless, saying—I have overcome and have trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.

Then shall he be crowned with the crown of his glory, to sit on the throne of his power to reign for ever and ever.

But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the sea shore,

And heard the voice of the Lord, saying—these all shall bow the knee, and every tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne for ever and ever;

For they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, his own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared,

And they shall be servants of the Most High, but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end.

This is the end of the vision which we saw, which we were commanded to write while we were yet in the Spirit.

But great and marvelous are the works of the Lord, and the mysteries of his kingdom which he showed unto us, which surpasses all understanding in glory, and in might, and in dominion,

Which he commanded us we should not write while we were yet in the Spirit, and are not lawful for man to utter;

Neither is man capable to make them known, for they are only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him;

To whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves;

That through the power and manifestation of the Spirit, while in the flesh, they may be able to bear his presence in the world of glory.

And to God and the Lamb be glory, and honor, and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.