Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X Man's Spiritual Life A Process Of Evolution IN a discourse, preached April 7, 1844, Joseph Smith takes occasion to answer the question: "The mind of man--the immortal spirit--where did it come from?" in the following manner: All learned men and doctors of divinity say that God created it in the beginning. But this is not so; the very idea lessens man in my estimation. I do not believe the doctrine. I know better. Hear it, all ye ends of the world, for God has told me so. . . . The mind or the intelligence which man possesses is co-eternal with God himself. ... I am dwelling on the immortality [i. e., the intelligence or immortal essence] of the spirit of man. Is it logical to say that the intelligence of spirits is immortal, and yet that it had a beginning? The intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will it have an end. That is good logic. That which has a beginning may have an end. ... I take my ring from my finger and liken it to the mind of man, --the immortal part, --because it has no beginning. Suppose you cut it in two; then it has a beginning and an end. But join it again and it continues one eternal round. So with [the intelligence of] the spirit of man. As the Lord liveth, if it had a beginning it will have an end. All the fools and learned and wise men from the beginning of creation, who say that [the intelligence of] the spirit of man had a beginning, prove that it must have an end; and if that doctrine is true, then the doctrine of annihilation would be true. But if I am right, I might with boldness proclaim from the house tops that God never had the power to create [the intelligence of] the spirit of man at all. God himself could not create himself. Intelligence is eternal, and exists upon a self-existent...