EVIDENCE OF DIVINE INSPIRATION IN JOSEPH SMITH DERIVED FROM THE PROPHET'S TEACHING IN REGARD TO THE EXTENT OF THE UNIVERSE, MAN'S PLACE IN IT, AND HIS DOCTRINE RESPECTING THE GODS—CONTINUED.
Before entering into an exposition of those doctrines taught by Joseph Smith in respect to the construction of the universe, man's place in it and the Gods, it is necessary to remind the reader that the prophet was reared and spent his life in the midst of environments which utterly separated him from all possible connection with the scientific thought of the age in which he lived. The western wilds of the state of New York in the eighteen-twenties and thirties, the wilderness of Ohio, the frontiers of Missouri and Illinois were not the centres of thought on astronomy and other scientific subjects; nor was a man engaged in the great affairs of a new and struggling religious society, hunted by his enemies, often betrayed by men whom he trusted, and constantly on the move, in any condition to give his attention to scientific thought had he lived in the very centres of its agitation. Moreover, some of the things that the prophet announced as revelation concerning the universe, the movements of planetary systems and their habitability are not even yet commonly accepted by scientists. Only the most advanced of astronomers admit the possibility of these things, and that with great caution.[1]
I. Joseph Smith taught that space is infinite, and that there are no outside curtains to it—no limits—no place beyond its bounds. As it was at creation's dawn so it is now and ever will remain, incapable of extension or contraction—a limitless vastness to which nothing can be added by way of extension. It is without a centre, without a circumference. Let reason, aided by the imagination, do all it can, no other conception regarding space can be formed. Astronomers tell us that between our earth and the sun there are ninety-two millions of miles of space. What is beyond the sun in a straight line from us? Space. Ninety-two million miles of it? Aye, and if ninety-two millions of miles be multiplied by ninety-two millions, the space in a direct line from us beyond the sun would not begin to be measured!
But I am weary of measuring distances by such a paltry unit as a mile, let us pluck a ray of light from the sun to aid us in our measurements. Scientists tell us that in one beat of the pendulum a ray of light would pass eight times round the circumference of the earth, or 198,000 miles! Yet from Alpha Centauri, the brightest star in the constellation of the Centaur and of the fixed stars the nearest to the earth—it would take its light about three and a half years to reach us. "It has also been estimated that it would take light over sixteen years to reach us from Sirius, about eighteen years to reach us from Vega, about twenty-five years from Arcturus and over forty years from the Pole-Star."[2]
These are stars whose distances from the earth have been carefully ascertained. But if these stars nearest to the earth are at such an immense distance from us that figures fail to convey to the mind any adequate idea of its immensity, what of those clusters of stars of which astronomers speak as only being visible through the most powerful telescopes, and that are at such immeasurable distances that it would require a million of years for a ray of light to reach us from them![3] So much space is between us and them—what is beyond those distant groups of stars in a direct line from us? Space; and as much of it on the other side of them as on this side; just as there is as much beyond our earth in a straight line from them as there is between our earth and those distant groups of stars. But why attempt to describe the infinite? It is a hopeless task; and as space is infinite, it is useless to attempt to describe it. Let imagination fancy it as vast as it can, but it is still vaster than that. There are heights in it to which even in thought the mind cannot ascend; there are depths in it which imagination even cannot fathom. What is here set down is not written with the hope of describing space, but only to aid minds not accustomed to think upon such themes to mentally grasp the self-evident truth that space is limitless. That to some minds may be a difficult thought, but it is more difficult to conceive bounds to space; and the effort to do so will result in bringing a consciousness of the truth that space is absolutely without limits.
II. In this limitless space Joseph Smith taught that there are inexhaustible quantities of matter; that matter is eternal; it always existed, it always will exist in some form or other—some of it as suns, earths and their satellites, and immeasurable quantities of it in unorganized masses, or thinly distributed throughout the immensity of space. As space cannot be extended or contracted, so the sum-total of matter cannot be increased by so much as an atom, nor can one atom of it be destroyed. It may be put through innumerable changes, organized into worlds and systems of worlds, and then resolved again into unorganized elements, but these changes neither increase the sum total of matter nor annihilate a single atom of it. He who asserts the eternity of matter, at the same time asserts the impossibility of its creation from nothing, and also its indestructibility.
The discovery of the immense quantity of matter in space by astronomers goes far towards establishing the truth of its infinitude and eternity; just as their measurements of immense distances go far towards establishing in the mind the conception that space is limitless.
When the geocentric theory prevailed, men had only a very narrow conception of the amount of matter that really existed, just as they had but a meagre conception of the extent of space. But when through the successive speculation and discoveries of Cusa, Copernicus, Bruno and Galileo, the conception that the earth is the immovable centre of the universe to attend upon which the sun and all the stars were created, was displaced by the truth that the earth is but one of the smaller of a number of planets that revolve around the sun; that the sun with its retinue of planets is but one of the stars that make up the galaxy that spans the heavens—each of which is a sun and doubtless the centre of a planetary system;[4] when the telescope increased to man's vision the number of such suns from five thousand visible to the naked eye, to thirty or fifty millions, he began to be aware of the vast amount of matter distributed in space which makes up the visible universe.
But beyond the faintest stars that can be discerned, the telescope reveals the existence of masses of soft, diffused light of greater or less extent, to which astronomers have given the name of nebulae. Many nebulae which once were set down as masses of unorganized matter, when more powerful telescopes were turned upon them, were resolved into star clusters, and for a time it was thought that all that was needed to discover that all nebulae were star clusters was still more powerful telescopes. This opinion is now, however, abandoned, since another means of determining the character of these hazy patches of light exists, viz., the spectroscope. In 1846 it was discovered by Dr. John William Draper, that the spectrum of an ignited solid is continuous, and as it was already known through the careful experiments of Fraunhofer that the spectrum of ignited gases is discontinuous, a means was furnished by the discovery of Dr. Draper for "determining whether light emitted by a given nebulae comes from an incandescent gas, or from a congeries of ignited solids, stars, or suns. If the spectrum be discontinuous, it is a true nebulae or gas; if continuous a congeries of stars."[5]
Observations of nebulae by means of the spectroscope since this discovery have resulted in some of them giving discontinuous or gaseous spectre, others continuous ones; and accordingly the nebulae of the former class have been set down as true nebulae or gas, and the latter as star clusters, too distant to be resolved by our most powerful telescopes into separate stars to the vision. The revelations of the spectroscope in this particular are accepted by scientists as "demonstrating the existence of vast masses of matter in a gaseous condition, and at a temperature of incandescence;" and it is suggested by Draper that in some of those gleaming apparitions we see the genesis, and in others the melting away of universes. However that may be, the extended view of the amount and diversity of matter in space afforded us by means of the discoveries of scientists through the instrumentality of telescopes and spectroscopes, helps the mind to comprehend the infinitude and eternity of it; and prepares the way for the acceptance of the great truth announced in one of God's revelations to Joseph Smith—"There are many kingdoms; for there is no space where there is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser kingdom."[6]
While on this subject of "matter" it may be as well to state that the prophet taught that "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter," said he, "but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes. We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified, we shall see that it is all matter."[7]
That there is no such thing as "immaterial matter" is a self-evident truth; and either we must affirm the materiality of spirit, or deny its existence; for what would an immaterial spirit be? the same as immaterial fire or water or atmosphere. To say that any one of the substances named is immaterial is to deny its existence. If it shall be said that intelligence or love is immaterial, the answer would be that neither intelligence nor love is matter, but a property of matter—an attribute of spirits, just as motion or weight is a property of matter.
Running parallel with boundless space and limitless and eternal matter is eternal duration, according to the teaching of the prophet. Eternal duration of time is of that class of truths called "necessary truths," because it is impossible to conceive the contrary; that is, we cannot conceive of duration having a beginning. Starting with today for a unit, I ask, what preceded it? Yesterday, I am answered. And what will follow it? Tomorrow. What preceded this present year? Last year. And what will follow it? Next year. What preceded this present century? Last century. What preceded the present millennium? Last millennium. And what will follow it? Another millennium. So I might continue to go on questioning and answering, constantly enlarging the periods, yet getting no nearer to the beginning of the past, nor to the end of future time. As in starting from any given point in space, and going with the velocity of light or thought in opposite directions, would never take us to the point where space is not extended, so starting from any given point in duration, and going in opposite directions, though our mental strides be a million years each we should never arrive at the beginning nor the end of time. It has neither, it is eternal.
Of course there is relative duration, which has a beginning and an end, such as the period between that moment, when the chaotic mass of matter out of which a solar system was made began to break up into rings and condense into a sun and its planets and their satellites, and that moment when it may be resolved again into such a mass. Such a period may have a beginning and an end. There is also relative space which may have a point where it begins and another where it ends, such as space between our earth and the sun. But I have been speaking of absolute space and duration, not of relative, and the one is as limitless as the other is eternal.
I shall be told that in all this there is nothing new; that the philosophers, at least of the materialistic school, believe and teach all this. Be it so, they thus far teach the truth, at which they have arrived by the slow and painful pathway of experiment and discovery. Wholly separated from them and independent of them, the youthful prophet Joseph Smith learned the same truths by the inspiration of God, and taught them to his followers fifty and sixty years ago in the wilderness of New York and Ohio. But he went beyond the philosophers as I am now to prove.
First, Lambert and Madler, as we have seen, conjectured that the so-called fixed stars of our galaxy were each the centre of groups of planets and with their retinue revolved about some greater centre, somewhere in the universe. Lambert's conjectures provided opaque centres, while Madler selected Alcyone of the constellation Pleiades as the centre of the steller universe. Astronomers regard these conjectures as baseless speculation, but cannot deny the possibility of them. They say that such may be the plan on which the universe is constructed, but they have no proof of it. They admit that their discoveries prove a movement of the stars, but they are unable to determine its character. But what the speculative philosophers advanced as conjecture and the working astronomers of today admit only as possible, more than half a century ago Joseph Smith taught as revelation from God. That is, he taught that among the stars commonly called fixed stars there are certain great ones which govern the smaller ones in their times and revolutions, or are the centres about which they revolve; that there is pre-eminently one great central body around which even these great ones with their attendant systems revolve, and that this governs all the planetary systems of the order to which our earth belongs.
To put the statement in another form, for the sake of clearness, as the eight planets with their attendant satellites which form our solar system revolve around the sun, so the sun with all his attendant planets is one of a number of such systems which revolve around a still greater centre; and that centre with its attendant systems is but one of a number of such systems which revolve around the pre-eminently great central body—to which reference has been made—that God has set to govern all those planetary systems that belong to the same order as our own.
Second, Joseph Smith taught that all these worlds and systems of worlds are under the dominion of law, by which they move in their times and their seasons; "that their courses are fixed, even the courses of the heavens and the earth—which comprehend the earth and all the planets. And they give light to each other in their times and in their seasons, in their minutes, in their hours, in their days, in their weeks, in their months, in their years: all these are one year with God, but not with man."[8] But while the prophet proclaimed the universal dominion of law, he also proclaimed that "unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions;"[9] by which I understand that even law is governed by law. That as systems upon systems of universes rise one above another, so also do the laws by which they are governed, so that which to us often seems a violation of law, is but the application of higher laws of which we are wholly or in part ignorant.
Third, the prophet taught that these worlds and systems of worlds, of which I have spoken, were inhabited.[10] The learned scientists of today in dealing with the question, "are the innumerable worlds in the universe revealed to you by your powerful telescopes inhabited?" can only give as an answer a doubtful "perhaps." One of the scientists, a leading astronomer, thus gives his conclusions after a long review of the question: "It seems, therefore, so far as we can reason from analogy, that the probabilities are in favor of only a very small fraction of the planets being peopled with intelligent beings. But when we reflect that the possible number of the planets is counted by hundreds of millions, this small fraction may be really a large number, and among this number many may be peopled by beings much higher than ourselves in the intellectual scale. Here we may give free rein to our imagination with the moral certainty that science will supply nothing tending either to prove or disprove any of its fancies."[11] This is the best that science can do. The habitability of other worlds to science is a proposition more or less doubtful; but the teachings of the Prophet Joseph are clear and positive upon the subject as far back as 1832.[12]
Fourth, the prophet taught that all these inhabitants had their own times and seasons, days and years, etc., according to the revolutions of the planets on which they reside.[13]
Fifth, that the Creator of all these worlds and systems of worlds will visit them each in turn. The revelation which teaches this doctrine refers to those worlds or planets that constitute the universe as "kingdoms" which the Lord likens unto a man having a field, "and he sent forth his servants into the field to dig in the field; and he said unto the first, go ye and labor in the field, and in the first hour I will come unto you, and ye shall behold the joy of my countenance. And he said unto the second, go ye also into the field, and in the second hour I will visit you with the joy of my countenance; and also unto the third, saying, I will visit you; and unto the fourth; and so on unto the twelfth. And the Lord of the field went unto the first in the first hour, and tarried with him all that hour, and he was made glad with the light of the countenance of his Lord. And then he withdrew from the first that he might visit the second also, and the third and the fourth, and so on unto the twelfth; and thus they all received the light of the countenance of their Lord; every man in his hour, and in his time, and in his season, beginning at the first and so on unto the last, and from the last unto the first, and from the first to the last—every man in his order, until his hour was finished even according as his Lord had commanded him, that his Lord might be glorified in him, and he [the servant] in him [the Lord], that they all might be glorified. Therefore unto this parable will I liken all these kingdoms [worlds] and the inhabitants thereof; every kingdom in its hour and in its time and in its season; even according to the decree which God hath made."[14]
Sixth, the prophet taught that the earth and the heavens at least as they are now constituted, will pass away; that afterwards the earth will be re-created and made an immortal or celestial world; and the righteous inhabit it as an eternal abode. This is the language of the revelation which teaches the doctrine—"Verily I say unto you, the earth abideth the law of a celestial kingdom, for it filleth the measure of its creation and transgresseth not the law. Wherefore it shall be sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, it shall be quickened, again and the righteous shall inherit it.[15]
"And the earth shall pass away so as by fire. * * * * And every corruptible thing, both of man or the beasts of the field, or the fow............