The telestial glory differs from the terrestrial as the light of the stars differs from the light of the moon. The inhabitants of the telestial glory are those who neither receive the gospel of Christ in the flesh nor the testimony of Jesus in the spirit world. These are they who are thrust down to hell, and will not be redeemed from the devil until the last resurrection, when Christ shall have finished his work. These are they who are of Paul and of Apollos and of Cephas; some of Christ and some of John; some of Moses and some of Elias; but received not the gospel nor the testimony of Jesus. These 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 liars, and sorcerers and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whoso loves and makes a lie. They suffer the wrath of God on earth and the vengeance of eternal fire; but they will be judged every man according to his deeds and receive according to his works, his own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared; and they shall be servants of the Most High,[[22]] but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end. They of the telestial glory enjoy neither the presence of the Father nor the Son, but receive the ministration of angels and of the Holy Ghost, for even they of the telestial glory are accounted heirs of salvation.
The Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon in their vision saw that the inhabitants of the telestial glory were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the sea shore—and they heard the voice of God saying—"These all shall bow the knee and every tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne forever and ever; for they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, his own dominions 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."
These are the great divisions of glory in the world to come, but there are subdivisions or degrees. Of the telestial glory it is written: "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."[[23]] From this it is evident that there are different degrees of glory within the celestial and the telestial glories; and though we have no direct authority for the statement, it seems but reasonable to conclude that there are different degrees of glory in the terrestrial world also. It appears but rational that it should be so, since the degrees of worthiness in men are almost infinite in their variety; and as every man is to be judged according to his works, it will require a corresponding infinity of degrees in glory to mete out to every man that reward of which he is worthy, and that also which his intelligence will enable him to enjoy.
The question of advancement within the great divisions of glory celestial, terrestrial, and telestial; as also the question of advancement from one sphere of glory to another remains to be considered. In the revelation from which we have summarized what has been written here, in respect to the different degrees of glory, it is said that those of the terrestrial glory will be ministered unto by those of the celestial; and those of the telestial will be ministered unto by those of the terrestrial—that is, those of the higher glory minister to those of a lesser glory. I can conceive of no reason for all this administration of the higher to the lower, unless it be for the purpose of advancing our Father's children along the lines of eternal progression. Whether or not in the great future, full of so many possibilities now hidden from us, they of the lesser glories after education and advancement within those spheres may at last emerge from them and make their way to the higher degrees of glory until at last they attain to the highest, is not revealed in the revelations of God, and any statement made on the subject must partake more or less of the nature of conjecture. But if it be granted that such a thing is possible, they who at the first entered into the celestial glory—having before them the privilege also of eternal progress—have been moving onward, so that the relative distance between them and those who have fought their way up from the lesser glories may be as great when the latter have come into the degrees of celestial glory in which the righteous at first stood, as it was at the commencement. Thus: Those whose faith and works are such only as to enable them to inherit a telestial glory, may arrive at last where those whose works in this life were such as to enable them to entrance into the celestial kingdom—they may arrive where these were, but never where they are.
There is a class of souls with whom the justice of God must deal, which will not and cannot be classified in the celestial, terrestrial or telestial glories. They are the sons of perdition. But though they will not be assigned a place in either of these grand divisions of glory, the revelation from which we have drawn our information respecting man's future state describes the condition of these sons of perdition so far as it is made known unto the children of men. It also informs us as to the nature of the crime which calls for such grievous punishment.
The sons of perdition are they of whom God hath said 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 he hath said there is no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come. These are they who shall go away into everlasting punishment, with the devil and his angels and the only ones on whom the second death shall have any power; the only ones who will not be redeemed in the due time of the Lord after the sufferings of his wrath. He saves all the works of his hands except the sons of perdition; but they go away 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. The end thereof, the place thereof no man knoweth. It has not been revealed nor will it be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof. It has been partially shown to some in vision, and may be shown again in the same partial manner to others; but the end, the width, the heighth, the depth and the misery thereof they understand not, nor will it be revealed to any but those who receive the terrible condemnation.[[24]]
Such the punishment, now, as to the crime that merits it. It is the crime of high treason to God which pulls down on men this fearful doom. It falls upon men who know the power of God and who have been made partakers of it, and then permit themselves to be so far overcome of the devil that they deny the truth that has been revealed to them and defy the power of God. They deny the Holy Ghost after having received it. They deny the Only Begotten Son of the Father after the Father has revealed him, and thus crucify him unto themselves anew, and put him to an open shame. They commit the same act of high treason that Lucifer in the rebellion of heaven did, and hence are condemned to the same punishment. Thank God, the number who commit that fearful crime is few! Only those who attain to a very great knowledge of the things of heaven are capable of committing it; and the number among such is few indeed who become so recklessly wicked as to rebel against and defy the power of God. But when such characters do fall, they fall like Lucifer, never to rise again; they get beyond the power of repentance or the hope of forgiveness.[[25]]
Carried away by the beauty, consistency and grandeur of these doctrines, how far I have wandered from the line of direct argument! And yet not so; for these very doctrines breathing as they do a spirit so purely charitable, laden with joy for the living and hope for even the unconverted dead, manifesting such a spirit of universal love, so every way broad, noble and Godlike, they are within themselves the strongest arguments that they are not merely human conceptions. As "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handiwork," so these doctrines proclaim that the mind which fashioned them was inspired of God. In other words they were not conceptions of the human mind, but are the outgrowth of revelation direct from God; and bespeak a divine authority for him who in this generation first taught them to the world.
But how comprehensive is this New Dispensation! The Dispensation of the Fullness of Times, truly; in which God is gathering "together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth!" A dispensation in which all former dispensations find their complement, and without which they would be meaningless. Nothing is omitted essential to its completeness. In it all the prophecies of the scripture either have been fulfilled, are in process of fulfillment, or are in contemplation, that is, the way is being prepared for their accomplishment.
In viewing a work so vast in its designs, so complete in what it is accomplishing and what it contemplates, one stands over-awed at the boldness of the conceptions involved in it; and as its real greatness begins to be comprehended by the understanding, the folly of accrediting such a work to Joseph Smith uninspired of God becomes apparent. There is no proportion between such a work and the uninspired intelligence of Joseph Smith, or any other man. It is too universal in its sympathies, too broad in its contemplated achievements, too great, in every way too splendid to be referred to a merely human origin. And I assert again that as the grandeur of the universe forces upon the mind the conviction that behind all its phenomena, there must be an intelligence operating infinitely greater than that possessed by man, so the comprehensiveness of the New Dispensation proclaims an intelligence superior to that possessed by man for the origin of it; and which can only be attributed to the inspiration of God in him who was the instrument by which it was brought into existence.