Perhaps our best conception of chaos, in miniature, may be had by observing the floating, restless, erratic particles of matter to be seen in the path of a ray of sunshine, when admitted into a dark room. One's uppermost longing at such a time is to introduce order into this jarring, discordant sphere. And that condition and that sentiment have no doubt met before. The psychologist would trace the desire back to a time before the formation of Kolob, when myriads of eternal, self-existent spirits lived in the midst of boundless space, surrounded by unlimited, indestructible, unorganized matter, in a universal chaos. It may be asked if there ever was such a chaotic condition. So far as the creations of God are concerned, it would appear that there was, for we are informed that Kolob is the "first creation."[[19]]

Turn now from this chaos in the streak of sunshine, chaos in the small, and let the mind contemplate that chaos at large, before any of the vast concourse of worlds that roll in space were formed, when the matter composing Kolob was yet unorganized; and the first desire that presents itself to the mind is to know how all this beautiful system by which we are not surrounded was evolved from that riot of matter, where this order had its inception, how God came to be God.

In what is without doubt the most wonderful revelation ever given to mankind, in that it reaches the farthest back and states some of the most important truths, the Prophet Joseph Smith, speaking at the funeral of Elder King Follett, at Nauvoo, explains in the simplest terms the sublime conception.[[20]]

First, however, let him state his purpose:

"In order to understand the subject of the dead, for the consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary that we should understand the character and being of God, and how He came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and will take away and do away the vail, so that you may see."

The mind is here carried back to a time antedating anything of which we have an account anywhere else in the world, and that there may be no doubt as to the time and the personage referred to, the Prophet is very explicit.

With reference to the time he says:

"You ask the learned doctors why they say the world was made out of nothing; and they will answer, 'Doesn't the Bible say He created the world?' And they infer from the word create, that it must have been made out of nothing. Now, the word create came from the word baurau, which does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize— the same as a man would organize materials and build a ship. Hence we infer that God had materials to organize the world out of chaos— chaotic matter, which is element, and in which dwells all the glory. Elements had an existence from the time He had. The pure principles of element are principles which can never be destroyed. They may be organized and reorganized but not destroyed. They had no beginning, and can have no end."

As to the personage meant, one may say, There are many Gods, an almost endless chain of creators; to which one does the Prophet refer? We are not left in doubt, for he explains:

"If the vail were rent today, and the great God, who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by His power, were to make Himself visible,—I say, if you were to see Him today, you would see Him like a man in form."