  The Gospel Dispensations. Only One Gospel.—There is but one Gospel. There never has been, and there never will be, another.[ For All Time and for All Men.—The Everlasting Gospel does not belie its name. It is not of any one time nor of any one place. Stretching from eternity to eternity, it encompasses past, present and future in its all-embracing fold. Neither is it for the benefit of any particular class, to the exclusion of other classes. It is for all men, and was made simple and plain that all might understand it, that its appeal might be universal. No creed comprehensible only to a few, no religion that mystifies the many, can by any possibility represent Him who died that the whole world might live. There is but one Savior, and but one Plan of Salvation; yet that Savior has many servants, saviors in a subordinate sense,[ Sublimest Things are always the simplest. This is preeminently true of the Gospel—the simple, sublime Story of God. A child can comprehend it; and at the same time it is capable of taxing to the limit the powers of the highest human intellect. It is the profoundest system of philosophy that the world has ever known. All true principles of science are parts of it, broken-off fragments of this grand Rock of Ages—or, to change the figure, pools caught in the hollows and clefts of Time, when the great flood of Truth, during one or more of its earthly visitations, swept by on its way back to the Eternal Ocean. All that is precious and exalting in religion springs from this ancient source of divine wisdom and intelligence. Who knows not this, knows not the Gospel. Why Man-Made Systems Endure.—Every form of faith that has benefited its believers, must have possessed at some time a portion of Divine Truth. That is what perpetuated it—not the errors associated therewith. These are as cobwebs and dust, the accumulated rubbish of false tradition, in which the jewel was wholly or in part hidden. Every creed, Christian or Pagan, that has proved a real blessing to its votaries, is as a cistern holding within it waters once wholesome and pure, waters that fell originally from Heaven in one of those grand spiritual showers called dispensations of the Gospel, when the flood-gates of Eternity were lifted, that the world might be refreshed. God's Word Apportioned.—The Book of Mormon throws light upon this theme. A Nephite prophet says: "Oh, that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people; . . . . "But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me. . . . . "I know that he granteth unto men according to their desires, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men according to their wills; whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction. "Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires; whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience. "Now seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called? "Why should I desire that I were an angel, that I could speak unto all the ends of the earth? "For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word; yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have."[ Does that sound as if "Mormonism" takes no cognizance of what is going on in the outside world? How can any intelligent reader arise from a study of the "Mormon" faith, convinced that the Latter-day Saints are not interested in anything beyond the bounds of their own social and religious system? That one selection from the Book of Mormon suffices to refute the false notion. Of Their Own Nation and Tongue.—All down the ages, men bearing the Priesthood, the authority to represent God, have officiated for him and ministered in behalf of mankind. And other good and great spirits, not holding that authority, but imbued with a desire to benefit and uplift their fellows, have been sent into different nations, to give them, not the fulness of the Gospel, but that measure of truth and light that they had the power to appreciate and put to worthy use.
The Arab and the Caliph.—But spirit waters, like the waters of earth, will lose their sweetness and purity, if separated too far or too long from their Fountain-head. They will become stagnant and unwholesome, like the drink carried by the poor Arab in his leathern bottle, from the sparkling spring in the desert to the distant palace of the Caliph, who magnanimously rewarded the giver, not for the rank draught presented for his acceptance, but for the goodness of his motive, the sincerity of his soul. An Oft-restored Religion.—Man's proneness to depart from God and to mix with the clear precepts of divine truth his own muddy imaginings, has made necessary more than one restoration of the primal and pure religion. The Gospel of Christ did not make its first appearance upon this planet at the time of the Savior's crucifixion. While it seemed a new thing to that generation, who were "astonished at his doctrine," in reality it was older than all the ages, older than Earth itself. Originating in the heavens before this world was framed, it had been revealed to man in a series of dispensations, beginning with Adam and extending down to Christ. The Book with Seven Seals.—Revelation is silent as to the number of the Gospel dispensations. But there are those—and the present writer is among them—who incline to the belief that seven is the correct figure; a belief partly founded upon the Scriptural or symbolical character of that number, and partly upon Joseph Smith's teachings relative to the seven great periods corresponding to the seven seals of the mystical book seen by John the Revelator in his vision on Patmos.[ The World's Hidden History.—According to the Prophet's exegesis, the book mentioned in the Apocalypse "contains the revealed will, mysteries and works of God—the hidden things of his economy concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance or its temporal existence." Each thousand years is represented by one of the seals upon the book—the first seal containing "the things of the first thousand years, and the second also of the second thousand years, and so on until the seventh."[ Are They Dispensations?—These seven periods—millenniums—may or may not be Gospel dispensations, periods of religious enlightenment, during which the Plan of Salvation and the powers of the Priesthood have been among men, alternating with seasons of spiritual darkness. But whether or not they be so regarded, it is interesting to think of them as covering the same ground, paralleling those dispensations, or extending through the same vast stretch of duration, and dealing with events and epochs, principles and personages, connected therewith. Symbolical and Prophetic.—Whatever their number, or the names by which they may be properly known, it is evident that the Gospel dispensations are inter-related and progressive, each preparing the way before its successor. Altogether, they represent God's special dealings with man, from the beginning down to the end of the world. They are also symbolical and prophetic, pointing forward to a great and wonderful Consummation, the long-heralded era of Restitution, when part will blend with perfect, when past dispensations will all be gathered into one—the Eternal Present, God's great Today, wherein is neither past nor future.[ Footnotes |
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