SCRIPTURE READING EXERCISE.

THE MODERN SCRIPTURES—(B) THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.

SPECIAL TEXT: "And it repented Noah, and his heart was pained, that the Lord had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart (compare Gen. vi:6). * * * And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth * * * * for it repenteth Noah that I have created them."—MOSES, IN BOOK OF MOSES.

NOTES.

1. Purpose of the Lesson: It is not intended in this lesson to attempt any treatise on the very great doctrines indicated in the analysis. The purpose is to locate them; to call attention to the fact of their existence in the Pearl of Great Price to make their acquaintance only in a general way now, with a view of learning their nature and importance as doctrines later in the course.

2. The Book of Moses: It must not be thought that all the doctrines either in the Book of Moses or the Book of Abraham are indicated in the lesson analysis and references. These are but the principal ones; and when taken into account, when thought upon, how great and fundamental they are! What extended views of the creations of God for instance are found in the passages—"and worlds without number have I created; behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power, and there are many that now stand; * * * the heavens they are many and cannot be numbered unto man! But they are numbered unto me, for they are mine." And this from Enoch's talk with God—"Were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea millions of earth's like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still!" What splendor, too, is seen in the endless processes of creation described in these words of the Lord—"As one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof, even so shall another come, and there is no end to my works." Science settles to its sure foundations in that doctrine. It is, in a way, and within certain limits—to put it in modern phrase—a sort of "evolution and devolution," with each succeeding wave in the process of the "evolution" rising to still higher states of excellence and grandeur and glory. And then as to the purposes of God in all these creations—"For mine own purpose have I made these things; * * * * for behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man!" Where else are these things said so well? Again: The controversy in heaven concerning the means of man's redemption; Lucifer's plan with its agency-destroying effect on man, and its glory destroying effect on God. "Behold," said this proud spirit—this "Light-bearer"—"Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it, wherefore give me thine honor. But, behold, my beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever. Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down; and he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice." (Book of Moses, pp.. 15, 16).

Then historically there is the fact of the gospel being taught to Adam, both by the Lord and through the ministration of angels; involving the explanation of the sacrifices man had been commanded to offer unto the Lord, prefiguring the redemption of the race through the atonement to be made by the Ouly Begotten of the Father; the joy of Adam and his spouse, even at the fall when its true significance is made known to them—"Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts and they taste the bitter, that they may know how to prize the good." With this truth clear to his understanding—"Blessed be the name of God," said the great Patriarch of our race, "for because of my transgression my eyes are opened and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God. And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient. And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and daughters." (Book of Moses, pp. 20-21.)

Then, too, the mission and preaching of Enoch, the establishment of Zion, and its translation into heaven, in all which there is much knowledge of ancient times restored to man.

3. The Date of the Revelation of the Book of Moses: The time at which the Book of Moses was given to the Church by the Prophet should also be remembered, June, 1830. The Prophet was then only in his twenty-sixth year; yet had his soul reached so far into the things of God that he came to the Church with these precious, because fundamental, universal and yet to be world-moving truths. Whence came the Prophet's knowledge of these deep things of God, save by the revelations of God? The writer is reminded here of an incident which came under his observation in his missionary experience in the south. One of the traveling Elders of the Church had succeeded in arousing the interest of a very intelligent lady in the message he was sent to deliver to the world, and had her reading the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and other Church works. Learning which, certain Christian ministers began calling upon her with the view of dissuading her from such investigation, and in connection with their protests gave her a tract setting forth the old Solomon Saulding theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon. Calling upon her a few days later, after she had had time to read their tract, the ministers inquired what she thought of the Book of Mormon now. "Well, gentlemen," said she, "of course I am not able as yet to say whether the Spaulding theory or Joseph Smith's story of the origin of the Book of Mormon is true, but I have something else to show you. Here is this Mormon book, the Doctrine and Covenants, claiming to be a collection of revelations received by Joseph Smith at first hand from the Lord. I believe there is no contention about his being the author of these revelations, and I find in them more evidences of divine inspiration than in the Book of Mormon, or in any other book I have ever read. Will you explain away the evidence of divinity in these revelations of which Joseph Smith is undoubtedly the author?" To this proposition there was no forthcoming answer, and much confused the ministers departed. I think the same idea may be applied to these books in the Pearl of Great Price—the Book of Moses, and the Book of Abraham—for in them, too, the same evidences of divine inspiration exist—bringing forth knowledge far beyond anything that the unaided mind of Joseph Smith could conceive.

4. The Revelations of Scripture Local: The fact that the revelations of our Bible and other scriptures relate, in the main, to matters pertaining to "our God," "our earth and its heavens," as set forth in the Book of Moses, I regard as very important in relation both to the phraseology and meaning of all the scriptures. For when the scripture says: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," etc.; and "thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts of them," he has reference not to any absolute "beginning," or absolute "finishing," but only to the "beginning" and "finishing" as pertaining to our earth and the order of creation with which it is connected; and the "hosts" that pertain to our order of existence, not absolutely to all existences. The revelations we have received of God, let it be said again, are local, they relate to us and our order of existence; they may not at all, except in the most casual and general way, refer to that order of worlds connected with and governed by the Pleiades, or of Orion, much less to the further removed constellations and their systems of worlds. We learn from the Pearl of Great Price that when the Lord gave those revelations to Moses by which the prophet was enabled to write the creation history of our earth, the local character of those revelations was expressly stated. (See Book of Moses, chap. i:35, 40; chap ii:1.)