THE PROPHET'S VIEWS ON IMMATERIALITY AND ON CREATION.
There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes. We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified, we shall see that it is all matter.
* * * You ask the wise doctors why they say the world was made out of nothing, and they will answer, "Don't the Bible say He created the world?" And they infer from that word create that it must be made out of nothing. Now the word create came from the word baurau, which does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize, the same as man would organize material and build a ship. Hence we infer that God had materials to organize the world out of—chaos—chaotic matter, which is element, and in which dwells all the glory. Elements had an existence from the time He [God] had. The pure principles of elements can never be destroyed, they may be organized and reorganized, but not destroyed. They had no beginning, and can have no end.
In order to present a more complete view of the importance of man as connected with the work of his redemption, his future exaltation and glory, as taught by the Prophet, I quote two discourses of his preached in Nauvoo some time previous to the period under consideration. The first is an excerpt from remarks of the Prophet made in reply to certain questions about the Priesthood and other subjects; the second is from an article presented by him at the October conference of 1840: