Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent.[[8]]
These beautiful couplets admirably describe the Spirit of the Lord—that all-pervading energy or essence which proceeds from the Divine Presence, fills the immensity of space, is everywhere present, and is immanent in all creation. But they give no adequate idea of the Great Creator, "the father of the spirits" of men,[[9]] who sent into the world his Beloved Son, "the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person",[[10]] that men might see in him the Father and worship God aright. The Son of God, walking as a man upon the earth, plainly indicated what kind of a being God is; and when his disciple, Philip, said to him, "Lord, show us the Father," Jesus replied: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."[[11]] Could anything be plainer?
But these teachings were lost upon the modern Christian world. They had turned from the truth "unto fables",[[12]] forsaking the God of their fathers, and substituting for him as an object of worship, an ideal of their own creation. And it devolved upon Joseph Smith to shatter the false doctrine of a bodiless, passionless deity, and bring back the lost knowledge of the true and living God.
The True and Living God.—What is meant by that? Who is "the true and living God?" He is the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Adam, of Enoch, of Noah, of the patriarchs and prophets and apostles of old—the God described by Moses in the first chapter of Genesis, where it is written: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female, created he them." This is equivalent to saying that God is in the form of man, and that we have a Mother as well as a Father in Heaven, in whose image or likeness we are, male and female.
Of the divine Three who hold supreme power and preside over the universe—three distinct personalities, yet one God or Godhead, one in will, wisdom, power and authority—of these, the Father and the Son, according to Joseph Smith, are personages of tabernacle. They have bodies "as tangible as man's;" while the Holy Ghost "is a personage of spirit."[[13]]
The Idol of the Sects.—Proceeding forth from them, is that all-pervading essence or influence which is immanent in all things—the light of the sun, moon and stars, the light also of the human understanding, quickening and illumining, in greater or less degree, "every man that cometh into the world." In it we live, move and have our being; for it is the principle of life throughout creation. This is what the poet was describing, when he portrayed Deity as a "Soul" that "warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze," etc. And this is what the Christian sects were worshiping at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Not God, but a spirit sent forth from God; not Divinity, but an emanation from Divinity. In a word, they were practicing idolatry—or something dangerously akin to it.
What Constitutes Idolatry?—"Idolatry is every worship that stops short of the Supreme."[[14]] It is "the paying of divine homage to false gods or images; also, adoration of created or imaginary beings or natural objects or forces."[[15]] This is precisely what the ancient world was doing when the book of Genesis was written. The Canaanites worshiped the sun and moon—Baal and Ashtoreth—ascribing to them the powers of creation. The Egyptians adored the crocodile, the bull, the goat and the beetle (scarabeus). Among the Hindus the seasons were deified—spring, summer, autumn, winter; as were also the passions—love, hate, fear, anger and revenge. All these were revered as deities. Then came Moses, who had seen the living and true God, and had conversed with him face to face, receiving from him the Decalogue or Ten Commandments unto Israel. The first commandment reads: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
Modern Christendom's Position.—The world in Joseph Smith's day—the Christian world at least—did not worship the heavenly bodies; did not deify beasts and reptiles, did not regard the seasons and passions as divine. Yet it had turned from the true God, ignoring or misinterpreting what Moses and the prophets had written concerning him. According to its dictum, the age of miracles was past; prophets were out of date, and angel messengers obsolete; the heavens were sealed, the canon of scripture was full, and God would never again communicate with mortals. Then came the vision of the Father and the Son—two glorious beings in the form of man—and from the hour that the boy Joseph beheld them, there was at least one person upon this planet who knew what kind of a being God is. It was a virtual reassertion of the first commandment in the Decalogue: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
To worship anything that God has made and given, in lieu of the Maker and Giver, is to worship an idol. They who turn from the Creator to the creature, who forsake God and adore a gift or an emanation from God, are idolaters, almost as much as if they worshiped the sun and moon, or bowed down to goats and crocodiles.
Like to Elijah.—To restore the acceptable worship of Jehovah, and begin a work that would sweep away idolatry and all things connected therewith, was the mission of Joseph the Seer. Against him, as against Elijah of old, the priests of Baal raged in impotent fury. Despite their tongues of slander and their weapons of violence, he accomplished all that had been given him to do. This time, however, the All-Wise permitted his servant to be sacrificed—to the end, no doubt, that his innocent blood, affixing to his testimony the red seal of martyrdom, might give added power to the great propaganda then and still in progress for Israel's redemption—the gathering of the scattered sheep preparatory to the Shepherd's coming.