My task now draws to a close. I have completed the exposition of the First Principles of the Gospel of Christ, contemplated in this work. I have endeavored to explain what the Gospel is—its two-fold powers of redeeming mankind from the consequences of Adam's transgression; and also from the consequences of their own personal violations of the principles of righteousness, on the condition of their repentance and obedience.
The various principles and ordinances constituting the gospel have been analyzed and the nature and object of each considered in detail, and then in their relationship to each other—how one principle or ordinance prepares the way and leads up to another: and lastly, their application to mankind, not only in this probation, but how they follow them into the spirit world and throughout the eternities, forever inviting him to peace and eternal felicity.
In all this I see a most perfect system of moral and spiritual philosophy—the perfection of beauty and goodness—a harmonious blending of justice and mercy, of truth and love. How far these pages exhibit those powers and beauties of the gospel, it will be for the reader to judge. But in passing that judgment I ask him to remember this:
Our whitest pearls we never find,
Our ripest fruit we never reach;
The flowering moments of the mind,
Drop half their petals in our speech
And in this probation I do not believe it is given to man to comprehend all the force, the excellence, beauty and power of the gospel. These things will be revealed in their fullness only in eternity.
[SUPPLEMENT.]
MAN'S RELATIONSHIP TO DEITY.
MAN'S RELATIONSHIP TO DEITY.
WHAT IS MAN THAT THOU ART MINDFUL OF HIM?
AND THE SON OF MAN THAT THOU VISITEST HIM.[A]
I.
In order to a clear understanding of man's redemption through the atonement of Jesus Christ—the grand central truth of the gospel—it is necessary to know something of the relationship between God and man. The very fact that such a sacrifice was made for his redemption— being no less than the immolation of him, who in heaven bore the second name—argues at once some special relationship between man and Deity. In view of the greatness and importance of that sacrifice, we may well ask, with the Psalmist, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?" These questions lead to the investigation of man's origin; for upon his origin his relationship to God depends.
[Footnote A: Psalms viii: 4.]