TRUTH GEMS.
The glory of God is intelligence.
It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.
Whatever principles of intelligence we attain unto in this life will rise with us in the resurrection.
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.
This is the work and glory of God: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
Adam fell that man might be; and men are that they might have joy.
The intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will it have an end. Jesus was in the beginning with the Father: man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
The spirit and body is the soul of man; and the resurrection from the dead is the redemption of the soul.
It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God; and to know that man, (as Moses) may converse with Him as one man converses with another.
This message of the Prophet, and these doctrines of the east bronze tablet, together with other doctrines taught by him in this PERIOD I of our CHURCH HISTORY, and to be found scattered through the six volumes now published of that history, await only the mind of some God-inspired Spencer to cast them into synthetical form—to be adequately presented and witnessed—to constitute Mormonism both the Religion and the Philosophy of modern times—to bring to pass and to glorify the Golden Age of the long-promised Millennium of Christian hope.
Footnotes:
[1]. That the general government of the United states has since constructed such a canal from Keokuk to Montrose, directly opposite Nauvoo on the west, and at a cost of more than four and a half million dollars, completing it in 1877 is noted in this volume, p. 80 and footnote.
[2]. See Nauvoo Neighbor for March 5th and March 12th. John E. Page was president of the company; and in a communication to the Neighbor (March 12, 1845) urging a vigorous prosecution of the enterprise, he said:
"We have commenced active operations for the building of a dam in the river, as noticed in the Neighbor of last week. * * *
"Here is the proud and gallant Mississippi, with her rapid current, tumbling to the broad Atlantic, seeming to say (as she quickens her pace over the rugged rocks of the lower rapids just opposite to our beautiful Nauvoo) only improve my shores and banks, ye Saints, as ye improve my neighboring soil; and I will propel your mills, cotton and woollen manufactories, by which your laborers can find employ, and your poor can be clothed and fed."
[3]. As the suggestion of Joseph Smith for building the canal around the Des Moines Rapids by the general government of the United states was carried out; so also is the water power of the Des Moines Rapids being utilized for manufacturing and other purposes, first suggested by the Prophet, but now, of course, in a way and on a larger scale than it was possible even for men to dream of when the city council of Nauvoo, in 1843, authorized the construction of a dam to harness this power in the Mississippi for the service of man. This, however, is now nearly an accomplished fact through the enterprise of the Keokuk and Hamilton Water Power Company, which, between Hamilton on the Illinois side, and Keokuk on the Iowa side of the Mississippi (eight or nine miles below Nauvoo), has in course of construction a dam which, including abutments, will be 4,700 feet in length, will stand 32 feet above the river bed, and be 42 feet wide at its base, built of solid concrete. In connection with the dam, and incident to it will be wharfage and a large drydock for the construction and repair of floating craft. There will be developed and for sale as the result of this enterprise, 200,000 horsepower for the service of St. Louis and other towns of Missouri, Illinois and Iowa. The dam and power house will be built at a cost of $22,000,000.
[4]. See "History of the Mormon Church," Americana magazine, number for January, 1911, Ch. LIX; also Elder John Taylor's Journal entry for 5th of September, 1844.
[5]. The Register article is copied into the Nauvoo Neighbor for November 13th, 1844.