4 THE GOSPEL DISPENSATIONS. I thought would be helpful to the brethren of the Priesthood— those who are studying the Gospel at home, and those who are preaching it abroad. To both classes this volume is affectionately dedicated. Salt Lake City, Christmas, 1913. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. PAGE 2 GOSPEL THEMES. The Story of God. CHAPTER I. A Divine Plan for Human Progress. The Gospel Defined.-The English word "Gospel" comes from the Anglo-Saxon "Godspell," or God-story-the story of God. It derives its significance from that great central idea of the Christian faith-the coming of God as the Son of God to redeem and save mankind. The joyful intelligence of the advent of the world's Redeemer, proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds on the Judean hills (Luke 2:10), furnishes another name for the gospel-"good tidings," or, as it is otherwise rendered, "glad tidings of great joy." God the Savior."God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people, and because he dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God" (Mosiah 15:1, 2). This prediction by Abinadi the prophet, centuries before the birth of the Savior, had been preceded by a similar prophecy from King Benjamin, another Nephite seer (Mosiah 3:5). The fulfilment of these foretellings is recorded in the opening verses of the gospel according to St. John, where reference is made to "the Word" that was in the beginning "with God" the Word that "was God," and was "made flesh" and dwelt among men. In him, as Paul affirms, "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:9). · Foundation and Superstructure.-When we speak of the gospel, therefore, we should bear in mind that the term means D+ something more than faith, repentance, baptism, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and other rituals and requirements in the Church of Christ. We must not isolate "the laws and ordinances of the gospel" from the basic principles upon which they rest—the mighty foundation stones of sacrifice and redemption, without which all this sacred legislation would be aimless and of no effect. Nor can the basic principles which make operative those laws and ordinances be dissociated from the idea of eternal progression, the great and paramount purpose for which the gospel code was framed, the gospel in its fulness instituted. (Fulness of the Gospel. The phrase, "fulness of the gospel," should be understood in a relative sense, as pertaining to the revealed will of God. There can be no absolute fulness, with man, until all things are made known to him. The fulness of the gospel as delivered to the Nephites and other ancient peoples, and told of in the inspired records that have come down to us, differed from, in that it was not so complete as is the fulness of the gospel which the Latter-day Saints enjoy. Truth is always the same; it never contradicts itself; but more of its principles have been revealed in modern times than at any previous period. Never before, upon this earth, has there been such a gospel fulness as that delivered to the Prophet Joseph Smith. And the end is not yet; for, as he himself said in one of his latest recorded utterances: "Those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent, shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this the dispensation of the fulness of times" (Doctrine and Covenants 128:18). It may help the reader to understand how there can be more than one "fulness of the gospel" by bearing in mind what has been made known concerning the final judgment, or the various awards of glory to be meted out to redeemed souls after the resurrection. Their glory shall be that by which their bodies are quickened, and whether quickened by a portion of the celestial, the terrestrial, or the telestial glory, they shall "receive of the same, even a fulness" (D. and C. 88:28-31). |