A word in relation to the manner of the Prophet's teaching. It was unique in its way. He may scarcely be said to have made any attempt at creating a system of philosophy however much may be said for his system of religion and of ecclesiastical government. His philosophical principles were flung off in utterances without reference to any arrangement or orderly sequence; and in the main were taught in independent aphorisms, which is a remarkably effective way of teaching, for an aphorism resembles the proverb, and is a form in which Truth is bound to live. It is the American philosopher Emerson, I think, who describes a proverb to be the language of absolute Truth—the statement of Truth without qualification. It is the literature of power. Fortunate, indeed, is the man who gives a people or nation a proverb; and so, too, is the nation or people fortunate who receive it. Like mercy, it is twice blessed, it blesseth him that gives and him that takes. Usually proverbs are produced by a race's experience. Proverbs come up out of the tribulations of a people. They are produced slowly and represent the hived wisdom of the ages. Books of proverbs are not written by men, to whom they are sometimes ascribed, they represent a collection slowly produced through centuries. Such are the proverbs of our Bible; proverbs of the Chinese classics; and the proverbs of the Hindoo literature. Joseph Smith gave to his age many of these generalized truths, more, I think, than has fallen to the lot of any other teacher, save Jesus, the Christ. I can but repeat a few of these as examples:
"The glory of God is intelligence."
"It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance."
"A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge."
"Knowledge saves a man, and in the world of spirits no man can be
exalted but by knowledge."
"Whatsoever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life
will rise with us in the resurrection."
"If one man, by his diligence, obtains more knowledge than
another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come."
"There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated; and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law on which it is predicated."
"Adam fell that man might be, and men are that they might have
joy."
"This is the glory of God—to bring to pass the immortality and
the eternal life of man."