**Why Man is Man.** It is fairly evident from what has been said why man is man. Man is subject-to eternal laws, and in the far-off beginning he must have exercised his will more slowly or not at all; perhaps, even, as laws came to him he ignored or opposed them. As more knowledge and power are attained, growth becomes increasingly more rapid. God, exalted by his glorious intelligence, is moving on into new fields of power with a rapidity of which we can have no conception, whereas man, in a lower stage of development, moves relatively at a snail-like, though increasing pace. Man is, nevertheless, moving on, in eternal progression. "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." In short, man is a god in embryo. He comes of a race of gods, and as his eternal growth is continued, he will approach more nearly the point which to us is Godhood, and which is everlasting in its power over the elements of the universe.
**God's Help to Man.** Self-effort, the conscious operation of will, has moved man onward to his present high degree. However, while all progress is due to self-effort, other beings of power may contribute largely to the ease of man's growth. God, standing alone, cannot conceivably possess the power that may come to him if the hosts of other advancing and increasing workers labor in harmony with him. Therefore, because of his love for his children and his desire to continue in the way of even greater growth, he proceeded to aid others in their onward progress.
Knowledge may be transmitted from intelligence to intelligence. God offered to the waiting intelligent beings the knowledge that he had already gained, so that they need not traverse that road, but might attack some other phase of universal existence. He devised plans of progression whereby the experiences of one person might be used by an inferior one. Each person should give of his experience to others, so that none should do unnecessary work. In that manner, through the united effort of all, the whole race of progressive beings would receive an added onward impetus.
**Man's Help to God.** The progress of intelligent beings is a mutual affair. A lone God in the universe cannot find great joy in his power. God, being in harmony with eternal laws, can progress best as the whole universe becomes more complex, or advances. The development of intelligence increases the complexity of the universe, for each active individual may bring new relationships into view, and increases many-fold the body of acquired truth. In that sense, the man who progresses through his increase in knowledge and power, becomes a co-laborer with God, and may be said, indeed, to be a help to God. It is a comforting thought, not only that we need God but also that God needs us. True, the need God has of us is relatively small, and the help he gives us is infinitely large, yet the relation exists for the comfort and assurance of man.
**God's Attributes.** To analyze the supreme intelligence of the universe, the God whom we worship, is a futile attempt, to which men of shallow minds, only, give their time. That which is infinite transcends the human understanding. The Gospel accepts this condition, calmly, knowing that, in the scheme of things, greater truths will come with increased power, until, in the progress of time, we shall understand that which now seems incomprehensible. For that reason, eternal, or everlasting, or infinite things are things understood by God, the supreme and governing Power, but not understood by us. Thus, "eternal punishment is God's punishment; endless punishment is God's punishment." Likewise, everlasting joy or endless blessings are God's joy and God's blessings. Man acknowledges in this manner that all things are relative to God.
Man does not understand God fully, yet an understanding between man and God does exist in that, God in the course of his progression has gone over the road that we are traveling and therefore understands us fully. He understands our difficulties, our hopes, our sorrows, our faults and our follies. God is supreme, and his justice is perfect; his love is unmeasurable and his mercy without end; for his justice and love and mercy are tempered by the memory of his own upward career. God's relation to man is, in a literal sense, that of father to son, for we are of the same race with God. We may rest secure that God's attributes are, with others, those that man possesses, made great and beautiful. He is our Father who knows and understands us.
CHAPTER 7.
MAN IS THAT HE MAY HAVE JOY.
Is the increasing power of man a sufficient reward for the effort and struggle that must accompany progression? This is a question that comes to every student of the Gospel. Power in itself may not be the ideal end of existence. It becomes necessary, therefore, to determine if there is associated with power, gifts that make worth while the eternal searching out of knowledge in order that greater power may be won.
**Consciousness and the Universe.** Intelligent spirits have possessed, from the beginning, a consciousness of the world in which they found themselves. They must have been susceptible, from the first, of feeling pleasure and pain, and must have had equivalents of our senses, which, possibly, were keener than those we now possess. When they were placed in opposition to any law of nature, pain or its equivalent undoubtedly resulted exactly as today. When they moved along with law, joy must have been sensed, as today. Intelligent beings can not rejoice in pain, therefore, from the beginning, to avoid pain and to secure joy, they have searched out and obeyed law. The more advanced the intelligence, the greater the number of laws that are understood to which adaptation may be made, and therefore the greater the possibility of joy. The search for increasing power, carried on by all normal beings is then really a search for a greater and more abiding joy. There is no Godliness in pain, except as it is an incident in securing more knowledge. True freedom, which is full joy, is the complete recognition of law and adaptation to it. Bondage comes from ignorance of law or opposition to it.