The principles herein explained are true and faithful, and confirmed by Holy Writ. The Elders of the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," who preach them, have not discovered them by their own wisdom, for they have been revealed from heaven, by the power of God, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and are now being preached as a witness of the speedy coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This Gospel is preached as before without money and without price, by those whom God has sent, who have met with opposition in every form, and many of them have suffered even unto death. Still the work is onward, the kingdom is being set up, and it will grow and increase until it fills the whole earth.
We testify of its divinity, and that it is being preached in fulfillment of the prediction of Christ, as a "witness" to all nations of his near approach. But "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man" (Matt. 24-37 to 40); many will reject the message and perish.
LIVERPOOL, February 1st, 1879.
We came to this earth that we might have a body and present it pure before God in the Celestial Kingdom. The great principle of happiness consists in having a body. The devil has none, and this is his punishment. When cast out by the Savior he asked to go into the herd of swine, preferring a swine's body to none.
—Joseph Smith, The Prophet.
JOSEPH THE PROPHET.
BY ELDER B. H. ROBERTS, IN THE CONTRIBUTOR, 1890.
Among those who may be accounted the benefactors of our race, we claim for the Prophet Joseph Smith, the second place. To Him who died that man might live, upon whom was laid the iniquity of us all; by whose stripes we are healed; who brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel; who by way of pre-eminence is called the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father—to Him must be assigned, forever, the first place among the benefactors of mankind. And next to him is the Prophet, who was chosen to stand at the head of the dispensation of the fullness of times.
Born in obscurity—in the western wilds of the state of New York, and of humble parents, without the advantages of worldly education; with no knowledge of ancient languages or history to begin with; untutored in the sciences, and unlearned in theology, Joseph Smith has done more for the salvation of the children of men than any reformer, theologian or ecclesiastic that has lived since the days of the earthly ministry of the Son of God. It is to prove his right and title to the high place we have assigned him in the roll of honor—in the list of the benefactors of humanity—that this paper is written, rather than to give a biographical sketch of his well known career.
Notwithstanding the very explicit revelation, which God had given of himself; of His person, His attributes, His powers, through His Son Jesus Christ; for in Him dwelt all the fullness of the God-head bodily, the world had gone far astray, in its conception and knowledge of God. Men had conjured up to themselves a being without body, without parts and passions, and worshiped it for God—a being that never was, nor is, nor ever shall be. Of the absurdity of such a description of God, however, we need not speak.