CHAPTER I.
Introductory
One Plan of Salvation.—As there is but one Savior, so is there but one plan of salvation. There never was, and there never can be, another "I marvel," wrote Paul to the back-sliding Galatians, "that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel; which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."—(Galatians 1:6-8.)
For All Men.—The Gospel of Christ is not of any one place, nor of any one period. Neither is it for the salvation of any class, to the exclusion of other classes. It is for all men, and was made plain and simple, that it might appeal to all. At the same time, it is the mightiest, the sublimest, and the most profound system of philosophy that the world has ever known. It is not a child of earth, nor a product of human wisdom. It came out of eternity, from the very bosom of God, and has been upon the earth at different times and places. It is the Everlasting Gospel, the same yesterday, today, and forever, and all true principles of religion, science, or philosophy, now popular in the world, are but parts of it—broken off fragments of this grand Rock of Ages. Or, to change the figure, they are as pools of water, caught in the clefts and hollows of time, when the great flood of Truth, in one or more of its visitations, swept by on its way back to the eternal ocean.
All Truth Divine.—Every religion in existence that has benefited its believers, must have possessed at some period a portion of divine truth; and that truth is what perpetuated it, not the errors associated therewith. These are as cobwebs and dust, the accumulated rubbish of false tradition, in which the precious jewel is wholly or in part concealed. Yes, every religion, Christian or Pagan, that has proved a real blessing to its votaries, is as a cistern holding within it waters once wholesome and pure,—waters that fell originally from heaven, in one of those grand spiritual showers, called dispensations of the gospel, when the flood gates of eternity were lifted, that the world might be refreshed.
The Arab and the Caliph.—But spiritual waters, like the waters of earth, will lose their sweetness and purity, if separated too far and too long from their fountain-head. They will become stagnant and unwholesome, like the water carried for many days by the poor Arab in his leathern bottle, from the sparkling spring in the desert to the distant palace of the Caliph, who magnanimously rewarded the giver, not for the rank draught presented for his acceptance, but for the goodness of his motive, the sincerity of his soul.
God's Word Apportioned.—How every tribe and nation receives its portion of the divine word, is thus told in the Nephite record:
"O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people:
"Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance, and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.